The fact is that in order to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
SS
Author
Sydney Smith
/sydney-smith-quotes-and-sayings
42
Quotes
4
Works
Author Summary
About Sydney Smith on QuoteMust
Sydney Smith currently has 42 indexed quotes and 4 linked works on QuoteMust. This page is the canonical destination for that author archive.
Works
Books and titles linked to this author
A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers: A Cyclopaedia of Quotations, from the Literature of All Ages
The Edinburgh Review, Or Critical Journal
The Sayings of Sydney Smith
Quotes
All quote cards for 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.
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
No furniture is so charming as books.
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.
Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.
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.
Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.
As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen.
What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!
A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.
Men whose trade is rat-catching love to catch rats the bug destroyer seizes on his bug with delight the suppressor is gratified by finding his vice.
We know nothing of tomorrow our business is to be good and happy today.
That sign of old age extolling the past at the expense of the present.
Never give way to melancholy resist it steadily for the habit will encroach.
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.
He not only overflowed with learning but stood in the slop.