# The Vicar of Wakefield

- Author: [Oliver Goldsmith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-goldsmith.md)
- Quotes: 27
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-goldsmith/the-vicar-of-wakefield

## Quotes

> By the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat.

> When lovely woman stoops to folly,
>
> And finds too late that men betray,
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> What charm can soothe her melancholy,
>
> What art can wash her guilt away?

> A kind and gentle heart he had,
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> To comfort friends and foes;
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> The naked every day he clad
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> When he put on his clothes.

> We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.

> To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?

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

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

> And what is friendship but a name,
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> A charm that lulls to sleep,
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> A shade that follows wealth or fame,
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> And leaves the wretch to weep?

> Man wants but little here below,
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> Nor wants that little long.

> I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too.

> No flocks that range the valley free
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> To slaughter I condemn;
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> Taught by that Power that pities me,
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> I learn to pity them:
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> But from the mountain’s grassy side
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> A guiltless feast I bring;
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> A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied,
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> And water from the spring.

> 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.

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

> The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.

> I was ever of the opinion that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population.

> The sigh that rends thy constant heart
>
> Shall break thy Edwin's too.

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

> It has been a thousand times observed, and I must observe it once more, that the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.

> To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.

> Handsome is that handsome does.

> A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.

> The dog, to gain some private ends,
>
> Went mad, and bit the man.

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

> Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,
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> And guide my lonely way
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> To where yon taper cheers the vale
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> With hospitable ray.

> Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.

> The only art her guilt to cover,
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> To hide her shame from every eye,
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> To give repentance to her lover,
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> And wring his bosom——is to die.

> The man recovered of the bite,
>
> The dog it was that died.