Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Luminous quotations, also, atone, by their interest, for the dulness of an inferior book, and add to the value of a superior work by the variety which they lend to its style and treatment.

The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.

It is not all books that are as dull as their readers.

The best book of the year, Grobel's writing is quite marvelous. The Hustons reads vividly, just like one of John Huston's great films.

Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art.

What makes a good book? Scholars and critics have been debating that question for decades. I like books that touch my head and my heart at the same time.

A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get.

Good books are irrefutable, and bad books refute themselves.

If a crooked stick is before you, you need not explain how crooked it is. Lay a straight one down by the side of it, and the work is well done. Preach the truth, and error will stand abashed in its presence.

I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.

Until one has some kind of professional relationship with books, one does not discover how bad the majority of them are.

It is a sure evidence of a good book if it pleases us more and more as we grow older.

An award does not change the quality of a book.

Nine-tenths of all existing books are nonsense.

That's what I want as a reader - I want to be confident that the book will do its job.

The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever -- they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.

Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer.

Books are like sapphires; they must be polished - polished! or else you insult your readers.

Truth is one, but error is manifold.

[Preface to second edition:] ... I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.

A great book should leave you with many experiences.

Too many times I’ve been wrong, I guess being right takes too long.

Experience can dull. With most men experience is a series of mistakes; the more experience you have the less you know.

The better the book the more room for the reader.

You correct an error by bringing truth to it.