"Scotland: That garret of the earth - that knuckle-end of England - that land of Calvin, oatcakes, and sulfur."
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Quote collection
Sydney Smith quotes (page 3 of 3)
56 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones."
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"Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach."
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"What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia?"
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"No man can ever end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior."
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"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."
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"Some men have only one book in them, others a library."
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"Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time."
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"Hope is the belief, more or less strong, that joy will come."
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"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"
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"He not only overflowed with learning, but stood in the slop."
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"Take short views, hope for the best and trust in God."
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"It is no more necessary that a man should remember the different dinners and suppers which have made him healthy, than the different books which have made him wise. Let us see the results of good food in a strong body, and the results of great reading in a full and powerful mind."
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"Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out."
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"Oh, don't tell me of facts, I never believe facts; you know, [George] Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures."
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"[T]he 47th proposition in Euclid might now be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse."
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