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Sydney Smith

English wit, writer, Anglican cleric (1771-1845)

Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English clergyman, critic, philosopher and wit.

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.

Quotes

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Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.
 
The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.
  • When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.
    • Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter IV
  • But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.
    • Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter V
  • In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm [at Sidmouth], Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington's spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal; the Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.
    • Speech at Taunton (1813)
  • We can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory;—TAXES upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot—taxes upon every thing which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste—taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion—taxes on every thing on earth, and the waters under the earth—on every thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at home—taxes on the raw material—taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man—taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health—on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal—on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice—on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride—at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay:—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 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent.—flings himself back upon his chintz-bed which has paid 22 per cent.—makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of an hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers,—to be taxed no more.
    • "Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States", The Edinburgh Review (1820), pp. 77-78
  • 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? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? Or what old ones have they advanced? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? Who drinks out of American glasses? Or eats from American plates? Or wears American coats or gowns? or sleeps in American blankets? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy and sell and torture?
    • Referring to the lack of established culture and the established institution of slavery in the United States, in "Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States", The Edinburgh Review (1820), pp. 79-80
  • Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.
    • "Ireland", published in The Edinburgh Review (1820)
  • The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.
    • "The Judge That Smites Contrary to the Law: A Sermon Preached...March 28, 1824", in The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith (1860) p. 428
  • Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.
    • "America", published in The Edinburgh Review (July 1824)
  • Every rock in the ocean where a cormorant can perch is occupied by our troops — has a governor, deputy-governor, storekeeper, and deputy-storekeeper — and will soon have an archdeacon and a bishop. Military colleges, with thirty-four professors, educating seventeen ensigns per annum, being half an ensign for each professor, with every species of nonsense, athletic, sartorial, and plumigerous.
  • It is the safest to be moderately base — to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when anything is to be gained by virtue.
  • Dean Swift's rule is as good for women as for men — never to talk above a half minute without pausing, and giving others an opportunity to strike in.
    • "Parisian Morals and Manners", published in The Edinburgh Review (1843)
    • Smith might have been thinking of the final words of Swift's "Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation": "It is not a Fault in Company to talk much; but to continue it long, is certainly one; for, if the Majority of those who are got together be naturally silent or cautious, the Conversation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one among them, who can start new Subjects, provided he doth not dwell upon them, but leaveth Room for Answers and Replies".
  • The fact is that in order to do any thing 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.
    • Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 6
  • Every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.
    • Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 364
  • Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.
    • On American Debts, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
  • He not only overflowed with learning but stood in the slops.
  • My idea of heaven is, eating pâté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.

Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)

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  • Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained after his time, but mind — which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume, in 1737.
    • Introduction
  • Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.
    • Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
  • 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.
    • Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
  • Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.
    • Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
  • The truth is, that most men want knowledge, not for itself, but for the superiority which knowledge confers; and the means they employ to secure this superiority, are as wrong as the ultimate object, for no man can ever end with being superior, who will not begin with being inferior.
    • Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
  • It is a very wise rule in the conduct of the understanding, to acquire early a correct notion of your own peculiar constitution of mind, and to become well acquainted, as a physician would say, with your idiosyncrasy. Are you an acute man, and see sharply for small distances? or are you a comprehensive man, and able to take in, wide and extensive views into your mind? Does your mind turn its ideas into wit? or are you apt to take a common-sense view of the objects presented to you? Have you an exuberant imagination, or a correct judgment? Are you quick, or slow? accurate, or hasty? a great reader, or a great thinker? It is a prodigious point gained if any man can find out where his powers lie, and what are his deficiencies, — if he can contrive to ascertain what Nature intended him for: and such are the changes and chances of the world, and so difficult is it to ascertain our own understandings, or those of others, that most things are done by persons who could have done something else better. If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes, — some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong, — and the persons acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly, that we can say they were almost made for each other.
    • Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding.; this provides the origin of the phrase "a square peg in a round hole".
  • It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.
    • Lecture XIX : On the Conduct of the Understanding, Part II
  • The history of the world shows us that men are not to be counted by their numbers, but by the fire and vigour of their passions; by their deep sense of injury; by their memory of past glory; by their eagerness for fresh fame; by their clear and steady resolution of ceasing to live, or of achieving a particular object, which, when it is once formed, strikes off a load of manacles and chains, and gives free space to all heavenly and heroic feelings. All great and extraordinary actions come from the heart. There are seasons in human affairs, when qualities fit enough to conduct the common business of life, are feeble and useless; and when men must trust to emotion, for that safety which reason at such times can never give. These are the feelings which led the ten thousand over the Carduchian mountans; these are the feelings by which a handful of Greeks broke in pieces the power of Persia: they have, by turns, humbled Austria, reduced Spain; and in the fens of the Dutch, and on the mountains of the Swiss, defended the happiness, and revenged the oppressions, of man! God calls all the passions out in their keenness and vigour, for the present safety of mankind. Anger, and revenge, and the heroic mind, and a readiness to suffer;— all the secret strength, all the invisible array, of the feelings,— all that nature has reserved for the great scenes of the world. For the usual hopes, and the common aids of man, are all gone! Kings have perished, armies are subdued, nations mouldered away! Nothing remains, under God, but those passions which have often proved the best ministers of His vengeance, and the surest protectors of the world.
    • Lecture XXVIL: On Habit - Part II, in “Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy”, delivered at The Royal Institution in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806 by the late Rev. Sydney Smith, M.A. (Spottiswoodes and Shaw (London: 1849)), p. 423-424
    • Another Variant: The history of the world shows us that men are not to be counted by their numbers, but by the fire and vigour of their passions; by their deep sense of injury; by their memory of past glory; by their eagerness for fresh fame; by their clear and steady resolution of ceasing to live, or of achieving a particular object, which, when it is once formed, strikes off a load of manacles and chains, and gives free space to all heavenly and heroic feelings. All great and extraordinary actions come from the heart. There are seasons in human affairs when qualities, fit enough to conduct the common business of life, are feeble and useless, when men must trust to emotion for that safety which reason at such times can never give. These are the feelings which led the ten thousand over the Carduchian mountains; these are the feelings by which a handful of Greeks broke in pieces the power of Persia; and in the fens of the Dutch, and on the mountains of the Swiss, defended the happiness and revenged the oppressions of man! God calls all the passions out in their keenness and vigour for the present safety of mankind, anger and revenge, and the heroic mind, and a readiness to suffer—all the secret strength, all the invisible array of the feelings—all that nature has reserved for the great scenes of the world. When the usual hopes and the common aids of man are all gone, nothing remains under God but those passions which have often proved the best ministers of His purpose and the surest protectors of the world.
    • Quoted by Theodore Roosevelt in his "Brotherhood and the Heroic Virtues" Address at the Veterans' Reunion, Burlington, Vermont, September 5, 1901 and published in Theodore Roosevelt's "The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses" by Dover Publications (April 23, 2009) in its Dover Thrift Editions (ISBN: 978-0486472294), p. 126-127

Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by his daughter Lady Holland, with a selection of his letters edited by Mrs. Austin (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855)
  • It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.
    • Vol. I, ch. 2, pp. 31–32
  • That knuckle-end of England—that land of Calvin, oatcakes, and sulphur.
    • Vol. I, ch. 2, p. 33
  • No one minds what Jeffrey says:[…] it is not more than a week ago that I heard him speak disrespectfully of the Equator.
    • Vol. I, ch. 2, p. 36
  • We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal.
  • 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 greatest attribute of God.
    • Vol. I, ch. 2, p. 67
  • Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.
    • Vol. I, ch. 3, p. 81
  • The English, generally remarkable for doing very good things in a very bad manner, seem to have reserved the maturity and plenitude of their awkwardness for the pulpit.
    • Vol. I, ch. 3, p. 83
  • It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.
    • Vol. I, ch. 3, p. 91
  • Avoid shame, but do not seek glory: nothing so expensive as glory.
    • Vol. I, ch. 4, pp. 134–135
  • Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God.
    • Vol. I, ch. 6, "Maxims and Rules of Life", p. 173
  • The fox, when caught, is worth nothing: he is followed for the pleasure of following.
    • Vol. I, ch. 6, "Of Occupation", p. 177
  • Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.
    • Vol. I, ch. 6, "Of Occupation", p. 178
  • Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence. If I lived under the burning sun of the equator, it would be a pleasure to me to think that there were many human beings on the other side of the world who regarded and respected me; I could and would not live if I were alone upon the earth, and cut off from the remembrance of my fellow-creatures. It is not that a man has occasion often to fall back upon the kindness of his friends; perhaps he may never experience the necessity of doing so; but we are governed by our imaginations, and they stand there as a solid and impregnable bulwark against all the evils of life.
    • Vol. I, ch. 6, "Of Friendship", p. 178
  • She looked as if she had walked straight out of the ark.
    • Vol. I, ch. 7, p. 205.
    • About a Yorkshire squire's wife.
  • Economy, in the estimation of common minds, often means the absence of all taste and comfort.
    • Vol. I, ch. 8, p. 263
    • This sentence, usually attributed to Smith, is actually by the author of the Memoir, his daughter Lady Saba Holland.
  • No furniture so charming as books.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 289
  • The Smiths never had any arms, and have invariably sealed their letters with their thumbs.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 293
  • Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 307
  • How can a bishop marry? How can he flirt? The most he can say is, "I will see you in the vestry after service."
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 308
  • [He] has not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 308
  • 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.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 310
  • You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 312
  • Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanilla of society.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 312
  • My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 312
  • As the French say, there are three sexes — men, women, and clergymen.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 313
  • To take Macaulay out of literature and society and put him in the House of Commons, is like taking the chief physician out of London during a pestilence.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 315
  • Praise is the best diet for us, after all.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 316
  • Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.
    • Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 317
  • "Heat, ma'am!" I said; "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."
    • Vol. I, ch. 8, pp. 317–318
  • Live always in the best company when you read.
    • Vol. I, ch. 10, p. 370
  • Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
    • Vol. I, ch. 10, p. 372
  • He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 402
  • Did you ever hear my definition of marriage? It is, that it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 415; paraphrased variant: "Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them."
  • Macaulay is like a book in breeches...He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 415
 
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.
  • Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl
    And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, "Recipe for Salads", p. 426
  • Serenely full, the epicure would say,
    Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, "Recipe for Salads", p. 426
    • Parodying lines from Dryden's translation of Horace, Odes, 3, 29
  • You remember Thurlow's answer to some one complaining of the injustice of a company. "Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? they have neither a soul to lose, nor a body to kick."
  • Ah! what you don't know would make a great book.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 430
  • In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give your style.
  • Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 436
  • I am old, but I certainly have not that sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.
    • Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 437
  • We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.
    • Vol. I, ch. 12, p. 472
  • If you could be alarmed into the semblance of modesty, you would charm everybody; but remember my joke against you about the Moon and the Solar System;—"Damn the solar system! bad light — planets too distant — pestered with comets — feeble contriviance; — could make a better with great ease."
    • Vol. II, letter to Lord Jeffrey (1806), p. 23
    • Discussed in David A. Kent, D. R. Ewen, "Romantic Parodies, 1797-1831", The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 44, No. 175, (1993), pp. 430-432
  • I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.
  • What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?
  • I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy grave.
  • Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.
  • A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
    • Vol. II, letter to Lord Murray (29 September 1843), p. 501
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