Quotes
Quotes about Man
That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.
Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger at his death.
Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England.
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.
A very unclubable man.
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.
A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do.
As the Spanish proverb says, "He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him," so it is in travelling,--a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.
I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."... There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false."
A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say.
Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."
