523 Quotes by Oliver Goldsmith

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,- A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, When once destroy’d, can never be supplied.

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It ’s like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt.

The pain which conscience gives the man who has already done wrong is soon got over. Conscience is a coward; and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent, it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

A reserved lover, it is said, always makes a suspicious husband.

They please, are pleas’d, they give to get esteem Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

The whitewash’d wall, the nicely sanded floor, The varnish’d clock that click’d behind the door; The chest, contriv’d a double debt to pay,- A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.

If you don’t ask me questions, I can’t give you an untrue answer.

What if in Scotland’s wilds we viel’d our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug’s two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.

The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness.