Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730(?) – April 4, 1774) was an Irish writer and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-natur'd Man (1768) and She Stoops to Conquer (1771)and first performed in 1773. (He is also thought to have written the classic children's tale, The History of Little Goody Two Shoes, giving the world that familiar phrase.)

He was born in the townland of Pallas, near Ballymahon, County Longford, where his father was Anglican curate of the parish of Forgney. When he was aged two, his father was appointed rector of the parish of Kilkenny West in County Westmeath. The family moved to the parsonage at Lissoy, between Athlone and Ballymahon, and continued to live there until his father's death in 1747.

Goldsmith earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1749 at Trinity College, Dublin, studying theology and law but never getting as far as ordination. Nevertheless, his name has been given to a new lecture theatre and student accommodation on the Trinity College campus, Goldsmith Hall. He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, then toured Europe, living on his wits. On his return, he settled in London, where he worked as an apothecary's assistant. Perennially in debt and addicted to gambling, Goldsmith had a massive output as a hack writer for the publishers of London, but his few painstaking works earned him the company of Samuel Johnson, along with whom he was a founding member of "The Club". The combination of his literary work and his dissolute lifestyle led Horace Walpole to giving him the much quoted epithet of Inspired Idiot.

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RT @CreativeVoix: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. ~Oliver Goldsmith
dtclarinet (David H Thomas) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:18:30 -0000
RT @CreativeVoix: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. ~Oliver Goldsmith
"Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall." - Oliver Goldsmith
barbarahof (Barbara Hofmeister) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:01:15 -0000
"Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall." - Oliver Goldsmith
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.Oliver Goldsmith
DebtFree4EVR (Michael David) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:34:11 -0000
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.Oliver Goldsmith
Today's Wisdom: "The greatest glory consists, not of never falling, but in rising every time we fall" - Oliver Goldsmith
JayForte (Jay Forte) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:38:03 -0000
Today's Wisdom: "The greatest glory consists, not of never falling, but in rising every time we fall" - Oliver Goldsmith
"Ten million circles cannot make a square, so the voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest basis to a lie." -Oliver Goldsmith
GrantRothberg (Grant Rothberg) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:56:30 -0000
"Ten million circles cannot make a square, so the voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest basis to a lie." -Oliver Goldsmith
Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall-Oliver Goldsmith
Ricky598 (Cesar Serrano) Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:14:01 -0000
Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall-Oliver Goldsmith

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