Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smithwas an English wit, writer and Anglican cleric...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth3 June 1771
running writing ideas
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.
anniversary marriage moving
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.
religious men law
When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces on me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool
faces nonsense mankind
Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.
power men ends
No man can ever end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior.
men religion trying
Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.
confidence courage fear
A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.
strong joy belief
Hope is the belief, more or less strong, that joy will come.
solitude littles cherish
Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.
oil people charity
You will find people ready enough to do the Samaritan without the oil and twopence.
children men water
He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, women, and children on the face of the globe.
loyalty imagination people
People who love only once in their lives are shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom, or their lack of imagination
faults offense ifs
Find fault when you must find fault in private, and if possible sometime after the offense, rather than at the time.
important praise duty
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.