I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy grave. - Sydney Smith
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
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship. - Sydney Smith
Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out. - Sydney Smith
There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all. - Sydney Smith
To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can. - Sydney Smith
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed. - Sydney Smith
He had occasional flashes of silence, that made his conversation perfectly delightful. - Sydney Smith
It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him. - Sydney Smith
Live always in the best company when you read. - Sydney Smith
What would the world do without tea? - how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. - Sydney Smith
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence. - Sydney Smith
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 thousands times worse than nothing. - Sydney Smith
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. - Sydney Smith
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave. - Sydney Smith
Learn from the earliest days to insure your principles against the perils of ridicule; you can no more exercise your reason if you live in the constant dread of laughter, than you can enjoy your life if you are in the constant terror of death. - Sydney Smith
If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth. - Sydney Smith
When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature. - Sydney Smith
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. - Sydney Smith