Quotes from Oliver Goldsmith

The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.

I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.

For the first time, the best may err, art may persuade, and novelty spread out its charms. The first fault is the child of simplicity; but every other the offspring of guilt.

A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.

Let observation with observant view, Observe mankind from China to Peru.

Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.

It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

All his faults are such that one loves him still the better for them.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.

Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair.

He who fights and runs away May live to fight another day. But he who is in battle slain, Can never rise to fight again.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

To make a fine gentleman, several trades are required, but chiefly a barber.

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only when he was off, he was acting.

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.