Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smithwas an English wit, writer and Anglican cleric...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth3 June 1771
bridle dying fifteen horse manages paid per pouring schoolboy seven spoon taxed youth
The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings him
happiness happy hence mankind memory twenty
Mankind are always happy for having been happy; so that, if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it
burning charm days direct food given god laughter life man marble plain steps support ways
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 to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps over the burning marble
faces nonsense mankind
Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.
convince effect fool hear man produces talk
When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool
constantly human mankind object preaching remind supply
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.
man
I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.
adversity gods heathen man might pleasure spectacle struggling wise writer
A wise man struggling with adversity is said by some heathen writer to be a spectacle on which the gods might look down with pleasure
faith man reason render within
It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.
false honor human man natural obscurity patience praise spite sweet wish
It is natural to every man to wish for distinction, and the praise of those who can confer honor by their praise, in spite of all false philosophy, is sweet to every human heart; but as eminence can be but the lot of a few, patience of obscurity is a
book man prejudices reviewing
I never read a book before reviewing it - it prejudices a man so
fool fools-and-foolishness law man talks
The man who talks of an unalterable law is probably an unalterable fool
man minutes together
I never could find any man who could think for two minutes together
gives good knowledge reader takes writer writers-and-writing
The writer does the most good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.