Sydney Smith Quotes (110 Quotes)

Life is fortified by many friendships.

Speaking of justice Truth is its handmaid, freedom is its child, peace is its companion, safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its train it is the brightest emanation from the Gospel it is the attribute of God.

Where etiquette prevents me from doing things disagreeable to myself, I am a perfect martinet.

I have the most perfect confidence in your indiscretion.

No furniture is so charming as books.

For God's sake, do not drag me into another war I am worn down, and worn out, with crusading and defending Europe, and protecting mankind I must think a little of myself

Poverty us no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.

Science is his forte, and omniscience his foible.

He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into empty wells and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again.

How can a bishop marry How can he flirt The most he can say is ''I will see you in the vestry after service.''

I never read a book before reviewing it it prejudices a man so.

Macaulay has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.

An ounce of wit is worth a pound of argument.

Death must be distinguished from dying, with which it is often confused.

In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue.

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

To take Macaulay out of literature and society and put him in the House of Commons, is like taking the chief physician out of London during a pestilence.

Do not assume that because I am frivolous I am shallow I don't assume that because you are grave you are profound.

Of Scotland That knuckle-end of England - that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.

Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.

To love and be loved is the great happiness of existence.

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.

To love and be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.

Life is a difficulty in the country, and it requires a good deal of forethought to steer the ship, when you are twelve miles from a lemon.

It is safest to be moderately base - to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when anything is to be gained by virtue.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.

Looked as if she had walked straight out of the ark.

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!

Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.

Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.

My idea of heaven is eating pate de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.

Thank God for tea What would the world do without tea How did it exist I am glad I was not born before tea.

Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.

Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.

In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm at Sidmouth, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused Mrs. Partington's spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal the Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.

Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.

Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.

Soup and fish explain half the emotions in life.

As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen.

Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.

No enjoyment, however inconsiderable, is confined to the present moment. A man is the happier for life from having made once an agreeable tour, or lived for any length of time with pleasant people, or enjoyed any considerable interval of innocent pleasure.

Avoid shame, but do not seek glory,nothing so expensive as glory.

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.

The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots.

When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool

No furniture is as charming as books, even if you never open them.

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.

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.

A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.

Deserves to be preached to death by wild curates.