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For Gods sake, do not drag me into another war! I am worn down, and worn out, with crusading and defending Europe, and protecting mankind; I must think a little of myself.
-Sydney Smith
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Action(s)
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It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
-Sydney Smith
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Age
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It is a bore, I admit, to be past seventy, for you are left for execution, and are daily expecting the death-warrant; but it is not anything very capital we quit. We are, at the close of life, only hurried away from stomach-aches, pains in the joints, from sleepless nights and unamusing days, from weakness, ugliness, and nervous tremors; but we shall all meet again in another planet, cured of all our defects.
-Sydney Smith
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Authors & Writing
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The writer does the most good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
-Sydney Smith
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Confidence
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A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.
-Sydney Smith
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Conversation
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Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.
-Sydney Smith
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Criticism
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I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so.
-Sydney Smith
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Evangelism
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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.
-Sydney Smith
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Evil
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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
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Facts
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Oh, don't tell me of facts -- I never believe facts: you know Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures.
-Sydney Smith
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Faith
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It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.
-Sydney Smith
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Friends
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Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.
-Sydney Smith
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Glory
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Avoid shame but do not seek glory --nothing so expensive as glory.
-Sydney Smith
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Greatness & Great Things
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Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
-Sydney Smith
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Home
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A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
-Sydney Smith
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Ignorance & Stupidity
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Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.
-Sydney Smith
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Letters (writing)
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Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.
-Sydney Smith
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Love
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To love and be loved is the great happiness of existence.
-Sydney Smith
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Manners
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Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect.
-Sydney Smith
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Marriage
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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
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Married couples resemble a pair of scissors, often moving in opposite directions, yet punishing anyone who gets in between them.
-Sydney Smith
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Mathematics
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What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?
-Sydney Smith
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Motivational
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Whatever you are from nature, keep to it; never desert your own line of talent...
Be what Nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.
-Sydney Smith, The Way To Succeed, W M Thayer, (Page 211), 1902
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Parenting
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Granted there are instances in which children have been reared in an atmosphere of inconsistency where value training of any kind was entirely missing; but even in these cases, it is the lack of loving guidance and structure rather than the lack of punitive retribution that has triggered the behavioral manifestations of delinquency. In a high percentage of court cases, there is evidence that the child has met with punishment that has not only been frequent but in many cases excessive. In fact, one of the sources of the child's own inadequate development is the model of open violence provided by the parent who has resorted repeatedly to corporal punishment, usually because of his own limited imagination. This indoctrination into a world where only might makes right and where all strength is invested in the authority of the mother or of the father not only makes it easy for the child to develop aggressive patterns of behavior but makes him emotionally distant and distrustful.
-Sydney Smith, quoted by by Karl Menninger in The Crime of Punishment, Viking Press, 1969.
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Philosophy
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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
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Books by and about Sydney Smith