Sydney Smith Quotes

Men whose trade is rat-catching love to catch rats the bug destroyer seizes on his bug with delight the suppressor is gratified by finding his vice.
Sydney Smith
Never desert your own line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed.
Sydney Smith
We know nothing of tomorrow our business is to be good and happy today.
Sydney Smith
That sign of old age extolling the past at the expense of the present.
Sydney Smith
Whatever you are by nature keep to it never desert your own line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed be anything else and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.
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.
Sydney Smith
Never give way to melancholy resist it steadily for the habit will encroach.
Sydney Smith
He not only overflowed with learning but stood in the slop.
Sydney Smith
Men whose trade is rat-catching love to catch rats the bug destroyer seizes on his bug with delight and the suppressor is gratified by finding his vice.
Sydney Smith
Heat madam! It was so dreadful that I found there was nothing for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
Sydney Smith
Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him and cannot be reasoned out.
Sydney Smith
Among the smaller duties in life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising when praise is not due.
Sydney Smith
Politeness is good nature regulated by good sense.
Sydney Smith
It is always considered a piece of impertinence in England if a man of less than two or three thousand a year has any opinions at all upon important subjects.
Sydney Smith
When you rise in the morning form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.
Sydney Smith
Take short views hope for the best and trust in God.
Sydney Smith
Heat madam! It was so dreadful that I found there was nothing for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
Sydney Smith
Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him and cannot be reasoned out.
Sydney Smith
Among the smaller duties in life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising when praise is not due.
Sydney Smith
Politeness is good nature regulated by good sense.
Sydney Smith
It is always considered a piece of impertinence in England if a man of less than two or three thousand a year has any opinions at all upon important subjects.
Sydney Smith
When you rise in the morning form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.
Sydney Smith
Take short views hope for the best and trust in God.
Sydney Smith
When you rise in the morning form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.
Sydney Smith
Oh don't tell me of facts - I never believe in facts you know Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts except figures.
Sydney Smith
I never believe facts Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts except figures.
Sydney Smith
Hope is the belief more or less strong that joy will come desire is the wish it may come.
Sydney Smith
Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.
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.
Sydney Smith
Madam I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life let us swear eternal friendship.
Sydney Smith
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.
Sydney Smith
I have gout asthma and seven other maladies but am otherwise very well.
Sydney Smith
He (Macaulay) has occasional flashes of silence that make his conversation perfectly delightful.
Sydney Smith
You never say a word of yourself dear Lady Grey. You have that dreadful sin of anti-egotism.
Sydney Smith
He has returned from Italy a greater bore than ever he bores on architecture painting statuary and music.
Sydney Smith
Going to marry her? Impossible! You mean a part of her; he could not marry her all himself. It would be a case, not of bigamy but trigamy; there is enough of her to furnish wives for the whole parish. One man marry her! - it is monstrous! You might people a colony with her; or give an assembly with her; or perhaps take your morning's walk round her, always provided there were frequent resting places, and you were in rude health. I once was rash enough to try walking round her before breakfast, but only got half way and gave it up exhausted. Or you might read the Riot Act and disperse her; in short, you might do anything but marry her!
Sydney Smith
I always fear that creation will expire before teatime.
Sydney Smith
When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.
Sydney Smith
The fact is that in order to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Sydney Smith
If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth.
Sydney Smith
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
Sydney Smith
No furniture is so charming as books.
Sydney Smith
The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.
Sydney Smith