Quote #5
[To Mr. Johnson] If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.
More from Oliver Goldsmith
- There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.
- You may all go to pot.
- Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
- For he who fights and runs away May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain Can never rise and fight again.
- Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a …
- 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.
- A nightcap decked his brows instead of bay, A cap by night - a stocking all the day!
- As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.