Oliver Goldsmith

But soon a wonder came to light

That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.

Those that think must govern those that toil.

I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an object intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, Adorns and cheers our way And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray.

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.

Can never rise and fight again.

All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, appreciated a little.

There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

The metaphor is a shorter simile, or rather a kind of magical coat, by which the same idea assumes a thousand different appearances.

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

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

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

There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.

I … chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well.

This is Liberty-Hall, gentlemen.

The first blow is half the battle.

The very pink of perfection.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain,

Measures not men, have always been my mark.

Don’t let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

How small, of all that human hearts endure,

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

The man recovered of the bite,

And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

The doctor found, when she was dead,—

Man wants but little here below,

How wide the limits stand

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,

A man he was to all the country dear,

And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

How happy he who crowns in shades like these,

Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey,