The collection / 135 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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135 results · Page 2 of 6Play this collection ▷

01c. 1807 AD

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?

Sydney Smith / quote

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02c. 1807 AD

Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.

Sydney Smith / quote

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03c. 1807 AD

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.

Sydney Smith / quote

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04c. 1807 AD

Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.

Sydney Smith / quote

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05c. 1807 AD

You will find people ready enough to do the Samaritan without the oil and twopence.

Sydney Smith / quote

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06c. 1807 AD

Brevity in writing is what charity is to all other virtues—righteousness is nothing without the one, nor authorship without the other.

Sydney Smith / quote

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07c. 1807 AD

I have come to the conclusion that mankind consume twice too much food.

Sydney Smith / quote

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08c. 1807 AD

I once gave a lady two-and-twenty receipts against melancholy: one was a bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things said to her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on the chimney-piece and a kettle simmering on the hob. I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or in others.

Sydney Smith / quote

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09c. 1807 AD

We should accustom the mind to keep the best company by introducing it only to the best books.

Sydney Smith / quote

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10c. 1807 AD

Whatever you are from 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 / quote

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11c. 1807 AD

It is all nonsense about not being able to work without ale and cider and fermented liquors. Do lions and cart-horses drink ale?

Sydney Smith / quote

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12c. 1807 AD

If you wish to keep the mind clear and the body healthy, abstain from all fermented liquors.

Sydney Smith / quote

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13c. 1807 AD

Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit and flavor and brightness and laughter and perfumes, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to "charm his pained steps over the burning marle."

Sydney Smith / quote

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14c. 1807 AD

Definition of words has been commonly called a mere exercise of grammarians; but when we come to consider the innumerable evils men have inflicted on each other from mistaking the meaning of words, the exercise of definition certainly begins to assume rather a more dignified aspect.

Sydney Smith / quote

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15c. 1807 AD

Education gives fecundity of thought, copiousness of illustration, quickness, vigour, fancy, words, images, and illustrations; it decorates every common thing, and gives the power of trifling without being undignified and absurd.

Sydney Smith / quote

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16c. 1807 AD

Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them; ... from pure extravagance, and genuine, unmingled falsehood, the world never has sustained, and never can sustain, any mischief.

Sydney Smith / quote

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17c. 1807 AD

Every good picture is the best of sermons and lectures: the sense informs the soul.

Sydney Smith / quote

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18c. 1807 AD

Every man's destiny is in his own hands.

Sydney Smith / quote

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19c. 1807 AD

Find fault, when you must find fault, in private, if possible, and some time after the offence, rather than at the time.

Sydney Smith / quote

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20c. 1807 AD

God has given us wit and flavour, and brightness and laughter, and perfumes to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps over the burning marl.

Sydney Smith / quote

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21c. 1807 AD

If frequent failure convince you of that mediocrity of nature which is incompatible with great actions, submit wisely and cheerfully to your lot.

Sydney Smith / quote

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22c. 1807 AD

Let no mean spirit of revenge tempt you to throw off your loyalty to your country, and to prefer a vicious celebrity to obscurity crowned with piety and virtue.

Sydney Smith / quote

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23c. 1807 AD

Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumes, to enliven the day of man's pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps over the burning marl.

Sydney Smith / quote

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24c. 1807 AD

Manners are the shadows of virtues, the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow-creatures love and respect.

Sydney Smith / quote

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