Frasi di Oliver Goldsmith pagina 3

“Il silenzio è diventato la sua lingua madre.”

Origine: Citato in Enrico Piceni, introduzione a Christopher Morley, Tuono a sinistra, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1947.

“[…] è bello colui che agisce bene.”

Origine: Da Il dabbenuomo.

“L'uomo dal morso guarì, | e fu il cane che morì.”

Origine: Il vicario di Wakefield, p. 12

“[…] la coscienza è codarda e quegli sbagli che non riesce a prevenire per mancanza di determinazione, raramente sa giudicarli con equanimità.”

Origine: Il vicario di Wakefield, p. 109

“Un libro può essere divertente con molti errori o molto noioso pur senza contenere una sola assurdità.”

Origine: Il vicario di Wakefield, p. 83

“Gli uomini migliori fingono un'estrema compassione per ogni sorta di animali: a sentirli parlare, uno straniero sarebbe indotto a pensare che non potrebbero fare del male neppure alla zanzara che li ha punti. Sembrano così teneri, e così compassionevoli, che li prenderemmo per innocui amici di tutto il creato e protettori del più orrendo insetto o serpente che avesse il privilegio di esistere. Eppure (ci credereste?) ho visto quegli stessi uomini, che si erano vantati in tal modo della loro sensibilità, divorare allo stesso tempo la carne di sei diversi animali preparati in fricassea. Che incredibile contraddizione! Provano pietà e mangiano gli oggetti della loro compassione!”

Origine: Il vicario di Wakefield, p. 5

Oliver Goldsmith Frasi e Citazioni

“Anche se esaminassimo il mondo intero, non troveremmo nessuno così felice, che non gli resti nulla da desiderare; ma vediamo ogni giorno migliaia di uomini che, suicidandosi, ci mostrano che non hanno nulla da sperare. È ovvio, dunque, che in questa vita non possiamo essere del tutto felici, ma possiamo invece essere del tutto infelici.”

Origine: Da The Citizen of the World, lettera XV; citato in Peter Singer, Utilitarismo e vegetarianesimo, in Aa. Vv., Etica e animali, traduzione di Brunella Casalini, Liguori Editore, Napoli, 1998, p. 253 (in epigrafe). ISBN 88-207-2686-6

“Fu già osservato mille volte, e debbo notarlo ancora una volta, che le ore che trascorriamo in prospettive di felicità, sono più piacevoli di quelle coronate dal godimento. Nel primo caso, ci prepariamo il piatto secondo il nostro appetito, nel secondo, la natura ce lo prepara lei.”

Utet, 1966, p. 192
Il vicario di Wakefield

“Le greggi che pascolano libere per la valle, | io non le condanno a morte: | mi è stato insegnato da Colui che ha pietà di me, | e ho imparato a essere misericordioso. || Ma dal lato verde del monte, | porto un banchetto innocente; | una bisaccia piena di erbe e di frutti, | e acqua di fonte.”

Utet, 1966, p. 62
Il vicario di Wakefield

“Quella virtù che ha sempre bisogno di essere custodita, non vale la pena che la si custodisca.”

Origine: Il vicario di Wakefield, p. 50

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

Utet, 1966, p. 36
Il vicario di Wakefield

Oliver Goldsmith: Frasi in inglese

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

Act II.
The Captivity, An Oratorio (1764)

“Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheldt, or wandering Po.”

Oliver Goldsmith libro Il vicario di Wakefield

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

“Good people all, with one acord,
Lament for Madame Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word —
From those who spoke her praise.”

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 1.

“Measures, not men, have always been my mark.”

Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize, st. 1.
The Bee (1759)

“A nightcap decked his brows instead of bay,
A cap by night — a stocking all the day!”

Act II.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)

“Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.”

Description of an Author's Bedchamber (1760).

“His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.”

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 185.

“His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.”

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 61.

“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.”

Origine: Retaliation (1774), Line 46.

“The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made.”

Oliver Goldsmith libro Il vicario di Wakefield

Origine: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 1, opening lines.

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

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 13.

“Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.”

Oliver Goldsmith libro Il vicario di Wakefield

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

“In all the silent manliness of grief.”

Oliver Goldsmith libro Il vicario di Wakefield

Origine: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 3.

“Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.”

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 384.

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

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 386.

“He calls his extravagance, generosity; and his trusting everybody, universal benevolence.”

No. 3 (Oct. 20, 1759).
The Bee (1759)

“Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”

Act I.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)

“The better sort here pretend to the utmost compassion for animals of every kind. To hear them speak, a stranger would be apt to imagine they could hardly hurt the gnat that stung them: they seem so tender and so full of pity, that one would take them for the harmless friends of the whole creation; the protectors of the meanest insect or reptile that was privileged with existence. And yet, would you believe it? I have seen the very men who have thus boasted of their tenderness, at the same time devouring the flesh of six different animals toasted up in a fricassee. Strange contrariety of conduct! they pity and they eat the objects of their compassion.”

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 126.

“And learn the luxury of doing good.”

Oliver Goldsmith libro The Citizen of the World

The Citizen of the World (1760–1761), Letter XV https://books.google.it/books?id=cIELAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA44.

“Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see
Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!”

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 22.

“One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.”

Origine: Retaliation (1774), Line 11.

“The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love,
The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.”

No. 1 (Oct. 6, 1759).
The Bee (1759)

“Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of humankind pass by.”

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 29.

“As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.”

Origine: The Traveller (1764), Line 327.

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

No. 175, Upon Unfortunate Merit.
The Bee (1759)

“Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side.”

Act I, Scene 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=sZloXETcr24C&q=%22Don't+let+us+make+imaginary+evils+when+you+know+we+have+so+many+real+ones+to+encounter%22&pg=PA21#v=onepage. <br class="br">The Good-Natured Man (1768)

“Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.”

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 161.

“Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
Full well the busy whisper circling round
Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd.
Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault;
The village all declar'd how much he knew,
'T was certain he could write and cipher too.”

Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village

Origine: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 1.