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Quotes by U. Sydney Smith
One of the best methods of rendering study agreeable is to live with able men, and to suffer all those pangs of inferiority which the want of knowledge always inflicts.— filed under Stupidity
Byron, 1831. A sweet attractive kinde of grace, A full assurance given by lookes, Continuall comfort in a face The lineaments of Gospell bookes. q. MATTHEW ROYDEN. Lament for Astrophel (Sir Philip Sidney). Looked as if she had walked straight out of the Ark.— filed under Appearance
Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam engine in trousers.— filed under Character
We are born to do benefits: * * * 0, what a precious comfort 'tis to have so many, like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes! Timon of Athens. Act. I. Sc. 2. L. 105. You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.— filed under Charity
In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue?— filed under Countries-America
Oh, herbaceous treat! 'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat; Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul, And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl; Serenely full the epicure would say, "Fate cannot harm me, I have dined to-day."— filed under Eating
Three Sonnets. Faith. It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.— filed under Faith
He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into empty wells, and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again.— filed under Folly
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence.— filed under Friendship
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality. Henry V. Act. I. Sc. 1. L. 60. My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon.— filed under Fruits
Avoid shame, but do not seek glory,-nothing so expensive as glory.— filed under Glory
Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.— filed under Government
The schoolboy whips his taxed top, the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent., flings himself back on his chintz bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.— filed under Government
Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.— filed under Happiness
Review, July, 1824. Mankind are always happier for having been happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.— filed under Happiness
It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.— filed under Jesting
Truth is its [justice's] handmaid, freedom is its child, peace is its companion, safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation from the gospel; it is the attribute of God.— filed under Kisses
A life of knowledge is not often a life of injury and crime.— filed under Knowledge
Poets. Alexander Pope. We cultivate literature on a little oat-meal.— filed under Literature
Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.— filed under Mind
Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.— filed under Sows
The most curious offspring of shame is shyness.— filed under Ships
Thirsis and Dorus. Macaulay is like a book in breeches *** He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful. C.— filed under Silence
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.— filed under Tea
Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumers, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to "charm his pained steps over the burning marle."— filed under Wit