Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Could a man live by it, it were not unpleasant employment to be a poet.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that being a poet is both challenging and rewarding, with the implication that one could live purely by the craft if it were not fraught with difficulties.
Oliver Goldsmith highlights the dual nature of being a poet: while it can be a fulfilling and enriching occupation, it also comes with its share of struggles and dissatisfaction. The essence of the quote reflects on the artistic endeavor of poetry, suggesting that poets may find their work both a source of pleasure and a challenge, underpinning the complexity of creative expression.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the struggles of artistic professions during a creative writing workshop.
More from Oliver Goldsmith
All quotes βA mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
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.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
I made myself into a poet because it was the first thing I really loved. It was an act of will.
It is only when light is reduced that the pupil opens and feeling goes out of the eyes like touch.
You are both a work of art and an artist at work.
Entertainment provides relief. Art provokes engagement.
Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.
I ground matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized I could not find it, I stopped, as if an unseen someone had slapped my hands.