Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer and Anglican cleric. Sydney Smith. Read full biography of Sydney Smith →
Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
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... →
Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.
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... →
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.
As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen.
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.
Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.
What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?
Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.
Heaven never helps the men who will not act.
Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.