Quotes from Sydney Smith

As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen.

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

Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.

Heaven never helps the men who will not act.

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.

Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.

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

Take short views, hope for the best and trust in God.

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.

Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation.

Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.

Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.

Married couples resemble a pair of scissors, often moving in opposite directions, yet punishing anyone who gets in between them

The dearest things in the world are our neighbor's eyes; they cost everybody more than anything else in housekeeping.

Una grande quantità di talento è persa per il mondo per la mancanza di un po' di coraggio.

But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.

All musical people seem to be happy. It is the engrossing pursuit, — almost the only innocent and unpunished passion.

Brevity in writing is what charity is to all other virtues — righteousness is nothing without the one, nor authorship without the other.

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.

A bigot delights in public ridicule, for he begins to think he is a martyr. – Sydney Smith

A life of knowledge is not often a life of injury and crime.

Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.