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Quotes from The Traveller — Oliver Goldsmith

1728–1774 Ireland

← All quotes by Oliver Goldsmith

37 quotes

Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days
Have led their children through the mirthful maze,
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

The Traveller (1764)

They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

The Traveller (1764)

Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill;
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still.

The Traveller (1764)

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

The Traveller (1764)

Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.

The Traveller (1764)

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

The Traveller (1764)

Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,
Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame.
Their level life is but a mouldering fire,
Unquenched by want, unfanned by strong desire.

The Traveller (1764)

And learn the luxury of doing good.

The Traveller (1764)

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

The Traveller (1764)

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

The Traveller (1764)

Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed,
The modest matron, and the blushing maid,
Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the Western main.

The Traveller (1764)

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

The Traveller (1764)

Impell'd with steps unceasing to pursue
Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view,
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies.

The Traveller (1764)

To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Embosomed in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land.

The Traveller (1764)

Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart untraveled fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

The Traveller (1764)

Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the western main;
Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around,
And Niagara stuns with thundering sound.

The Traveller (1764)

At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down, the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board.

The Traveller (1764)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Oliver Goldsmith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.