Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!
Interpretation
What this quote means
Romantic ideals often portray a beauty and happiness that is unattainable in real life, leading to deception and disappointment.
In this quote, Oliver Goldsmith critiques the romanticization found in literature, suggesting that the beauty painted by romance and novels far surpasses the authentic colors of nature. He argues that such depictions create unrealistic standards of happiness and bliss, leading individuals to pursue an elusive ideal, ultimately resulting in disillusionment and destruction when reality falls short of those expectations.
Themes
RomanceBeautyHappinessDeceptionNovelsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the impact of romantic literature on societal expectations.
More from Oliver Goldsmith
All quotes βA mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,_x000D_ _x000D_ Adorns and cheers our way;_x000D_ _x000D_ And still, as darker grows the night,_x000D_ _x000D_ Emits a brighter ray.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Similar quotes
It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention.
Conan O'BrienRead
It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories; so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways.
Glenn CloseRead
When someone has to intervene to defend the liberty of the press, that society is sick.
Umberto EcoRead
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
Alexander HamiltonRead
Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Man should be master of his environment, not its slave. That is what freedom means.
Anthony EdenRead