Oliver Goldsmith: Trending quotes

“Here lies David Garrick, describe me, who can,
An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man.”

Source: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 7.

“That strain once more; it bids remembrance rise.”

Source: Retaliation (1774), Line 93.

“Even children followed with endearing wile,
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.”

Act I.
The Captivity, An Oratorio (1764)

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

Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 183.

“The watchdog's voice that bayed the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.”

Source: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 1.

“Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.”

Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 121.

“There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.”

Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 413.

“They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem,
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.”

From James Boswell's Life of Johnson (1791), October 26, 1769.

“So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar
But bind him to his native mountains more.”

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 265.

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

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 217.

Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act I

“But winter lingering chills the lap of May.”

“The land of scholars and the nurse of arms.”

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 172.

“Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!”

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 356.

“Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.”

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 50.

“They would talk of nothing but high life, and high-lived company, with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.”

Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 344.

“And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And curs of low degree.”

Source: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 9.

“As a wit, if not first, in the very first line.”

Source: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 17, An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, st. 4.