Week 2023-28: Oliver Goldsmith - Collected Quotes

"People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Bee", 1759)

"In two opposite opinions, if one be perfectly reasonable, the other can't be perfectly right." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Oliver Goldsmith", 1780)

"All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

"Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

"If we do not find happiness in the present moment, in what shall we find it?" (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792) 

"Religion does what philosophy could never do; it shows the equal dealings of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

"Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

"The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals; it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, and success." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

'Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity." (Oliver Goldsmith, "A history of the earth: and animated nature", 1813)

"A man's own heart must ever be given to gain that of another." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Vicar of Wakefield, a Tale: To which is Annexed The Deserted Village", 1828)

"Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Complete Works of Oliver Goldsmith", 1893)

"Teaching by lecture makes men mere scholars, but instructing by examination makes them learned: the student has the best chance of becoming actually great." (Oliver Goldsmith)