Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"YOUR last letters betray a mind seemingly fond of wisdom, yet tempested up by a thousand various passions."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"You would fondly persuade me that my former lessons still influence your conduct, and yet your mind seems not less enslaved than your body."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"Knowlege, wisdom, erudition, arts and elegance what are they, but the mere trappings of the mind, if they do not serve to encrease the happiness of the possessor?"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"A mind rightly instituted in the school of philosophy, acquires at once the stability of the oak, and the flexibility of the osier."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where two armies are ready every moment to encounter; not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent; and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"Reason guides the bands of either host, nor can it subdue one passion but by the assistance of another."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"Thus, as a bark on every side beset with storms, enjoys a state of rest, so does the mind, when influenced by a just equipoise of the passions, enjoy tranquility"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"The Prince now found that he had all along been under the power of enchantment, that his passion for the white mouse was entirely fictitious, and not the genuine complexion of his soul; he now saw that his earnestness after mice was an illiberal amusement, and much more becoming a ratcatcher tha...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"However, I found their conversation more vulgar than I could have expected from personages of such distinction: if these, thought I to myself, be Princes, they are the most stupid Princes I have ever conversed with: yet still I continued to venerate their dress; for dress has a kind of mechanica...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"A mind thus sunk for a while below its natural standard, is qualified for stronger flights, as those first retire who would spring forward with greater vigour"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)