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Quotations by Smith, Sydney
Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.
The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.
Poverty, sir, is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
(Attributed)
Quoted in Potter Briscoe, Sydney Smith: His Wit and Wisdom (1900). Hayward (1858) says that Smith attributed this to "a fellow-passenger in a stage coach"
Heaven never helps the men who will not act.
Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.
No furniture so charming as books.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
(Attributed)
Quoted in Lady Holland (Smith's daughter), Memoir, Vol. 1, ch. 9 (1855). See also Beecher.
Did you ever hear my definition of marriage? It is, that it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
A Memoir of The Reverend Sydney Smith: by His Daughter, Vol. I, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Do what you can.
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.
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.
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
Fate cannot harm me,—I have dined to-day.
Live always in the best company when you read.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 10 (1855)
Full text.
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 10 (1855)
Full text.
Live always in the best company when you read.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 10 (1855)
Full text.
He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 11 (1855)
Full text.
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 (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 11 (1855)
Full text.
We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 12 (1855)
Full text.
Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. I, ch. 3 (1855)
Full text.
Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanilla of society.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, vol. I, ch. 9 (1855)
Full text.
Moralists tell you of the evils of wealth and station, and the happiness of poverty. I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I have gained.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, vol. I, ch. 9 (1855)
Full text.
That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Lady Holland’s Memoir, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)
Avoid shame but do not seek glory — nothing so expensive as glory.
Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love, and respect.
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.
I am for frank explanations with friends in cases of affronts. They sometimes save a perishing friendship, and even place it on a firmer basis than at first; but secret discontent must always end badly.
My idea of heaven is eating paté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.
What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!
It is a bore, I admit, to be past seventy, for you are left for execution, and are daily expecting the death-warrant; but … it is not anything very capital we quit. We are, at the close of life, only hurried away from stomach-aches, pains in the joints, from sleepless nights and unamusing days, from weakness, ugliness, and nervous tremors; but we shall all meet again in another planet, cured of all our defects.
A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.