Sydney Smith quotes - page 4

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. (Sydney Smith)
Dean Swift's rule is as good for women as for men - never to talk above a half minute without pausing, and giving others an opportunity to strike in. View quote
Sydney Smith
But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution. View quote
Sydney Smith
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave. View quote
Sydney Smith
Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in. View quote
Sydney Smith
No man can ever end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior. View quote
Sydney Smith
Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done. View quote
Sydney Smith
We know nothing of tomorrow, our business is to be good and happy today. View quote
Sydney Smith
The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities. View quote
Sydney Smith
The schoolboy whips his taxed top the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. View quote
Sydney Smith
There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all. (Sydney Smith)
A good marriage is at least 80 percent good luck in finding the right person at the right time. The rest is trust. View quote
Sydney Smith
That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present. View quote
Sydney Smith
An ounce of wit is worth a pound of argument. View quote
Sydney Smith
Mankind are always happy for having been happy; so that, if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it. View quote
Sydney Smith
God calls all the passions out in their keenness and vigour, for the present safety of mankind. View quote
Sydney Smith
The history of the world shows us that men are not to be counted by their numbers, but by the fire and vigour of their passions. View quote
Sydney Smith
It is a very wise rule in the conduct of the understanding, to acquire early a correct notion of your own peculiar constitution of mind, and to become well acquainted, as a physician would say, with your idiosyncrasy. View quote
Sydney Smith
It is a prodigious point gained if any man can find out where his powers lie, and what are his deficiencies, - if he can contrive to ascertain what Nature intended him for: and such are the changes and chances of the world, and so difficult is it to ascertain our own understandings, or those of others, that most things are done by persons who could have done something else better. View quote
Sydney Smith
All great and extraordinary actions come from the heart. There are seasons in human affairs, when qualities fit enough to conduct the common business of life, are feeble and useless; and when men must trust to emotion, for that safety which reason at such times can never give. View quote
Sydney Smith
Nothing remains, under God, but those passions which have often proved. (Sydney Smith)
Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy and sell and torture? View quote
Sydney Smith
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. View quote
Sydney Smith
To business that we love we rise bedtime, and go to't with delight. View quote
Sydney Smith
Politeness is good nature regulated by good sense. View quote
Sydney Smith