"Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed."
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Quote collection
Sydney Smith quotes (page 1 of 3)
56 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee."
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"The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing."
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"Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence."
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"Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship."
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"Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea."
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"The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities."
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"A man who wishes to make his way in life could do no better than go through the world with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand."
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"You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence."
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"A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience."
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"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."
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"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men who have only remained obscure because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort; and who, if they could only have been induced to begin, would in all probability have gone great lengths in the career of fame."
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"I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland."
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"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."
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"we know nothing of tomorrow, our business is to be good and happy today"
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"If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth."
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"I always fear that creation will expire before teatime."
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"The two women exchanged the type of glance women use when there is no knife handy."
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"No furniture is so charming as books."
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"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage."
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