Sydney Smith

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.

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

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.

Heaven never helps the men who will not act.

Mankind are always happier for having been happy so that if you make them happy now you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.

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.

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

Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.

To business that we love we rise bedtime, and go to't with delight.

What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?

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

Live always in the best company when you read.

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.

We know nothing of tomorrow our business is to be good and happy today.

Let every man be occupied and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.

Marriage 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.

Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them.

Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation.

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can.

Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.

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.

If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth.

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.

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

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

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

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

What you don't know would make a great book.

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

Science is his forte, and omniscience his foible.

I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

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

The object of preaching is to constantly remind mankind of what they keep forgetting; not to supply the intellect, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.

Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.

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

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

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

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

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.

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

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.

No man can ever end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior.

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

We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.

When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.