Sydney Smith

Best Quotes

• There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all.

• It resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who c...

• All this class of pleasures inspires me with the same nausea as I feel at the sight of rich plum-cake or sweetmeats; I prefer the driest bread of common life.

• He had occasional flashes of silence that made his conversation perfectly delightful.

• His enemies might have said before that he talked rather too much; but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.

• I am convinced digestion is the great secret of life.

• A nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigor of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze that he might chuckle over the splendor.

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

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

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

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