Sydney Smith quotes

Sydney Smith was an English writer, clergyman, and wit renowned for his sharp humor and social commentary. Famous as a founding member of the Edinburgh Review, he influenced literary and political thought in 19th-century Britain. He remains celebrated for his lively essays, sermons, and advocacy of social reform. Here are 109 of his quotes:

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style. (Sydney Smith)
Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything. View quote
Sydney Smith
As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen. View quote
Sydney Smith
Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. View quote
Sydney Smith
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due. View quote
Sydney Smith
No furniture is so charming as books. View quote
Sydney Smith
Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes in between them. View quote
Sydney Smith
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship. View quote
Sydney Smith
What you don't know would make a great book. View quote
Sydney Smith
Thank God for tea What would the world do without tea How did it exist I am glad I was not born before tea. View quote
Sydney Smith
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence. (Sydney Smith)
Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect. View quote
Sydney Smith
Praise is the best diet for us, after all. View quote
Sydney Smith
Avoid shame, but do not seek glory, - nothing so expensive as glory. View quote
Sydney Smith
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. View quote
Sydney Smith
Live always in the best company when you read. View quote
Sydney Smith
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach. View quote
Sydney Smith
What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors? View quote
Sydney Smith
To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can. View quote
Sydney Smith
Of Scotland That knuckle-end of England - that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur. View quote
Sydney Smith
Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up. (Sydney Smith)
Heat, ma'am' I said 'it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones. View quote
Sydney Smith
You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence. View quote
Sydney Smith
Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume in 1737. View quote
Sydney Smith
A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience. View quote
Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith - Image
Occupation: English Clergyman
Born: June 3, 1771
Died: February 22, 1845
Quotes count: 109
Wikipedia: Sydney Smith

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