Sydney Smith Quotes

100 Sourced Quotes

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.

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

Sydney Smith
Let us see the result of good food in a strong body, and the result of great reading in a full and powerful mind.

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

Sydney Smith
Nothing can be more disgusting than an oratorio. How absurd to see 500 people fiddling like madmen about Israelites in the Red Sea!

Sydney Smith
In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give your style.

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.

Sydney Smith
One evil in old age is, that as your time is come, you think that every little illness is the beginning of the end. When a man expects to be arrested, every knock at the door is an alarm.

Sydney Smith
Every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.

Sydney Smith
Ah, you flavor everything; you are the vanilla of society.

Sydney Smith