All Sydney Smith Quotes
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
Sydney Smith
54% of people like this quote
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.
Sydney Smith
54% of people like this quote
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.
Sydney Smith
53% of people like this quote
Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.
Sydney Smith
53% of people like this quote
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
53% of people like this quote
I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.
Sydney Smith
53% of people like this quote
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can.
Sydney Smith
52% of people like this quote
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.
Sydney Smith
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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.
Sydney Smith
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Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
Sydney Smith
52% of people like this quote
I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sydney Smith
51% of people like this quote
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.
Sydney Smith
51% of people like this quote
What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!
Sydney Smith
50% of people like this quote
Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.
Sydney Smith
50% of people like this quote
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