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.
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Quotes by Sydney Smith
Explore 12 verified and sourced quotes attributed to Sydney Smith. Open any quote for its dedicated page, source details and related topics.
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Selected quotes by Sydney Smith
There is but one method, and that is hard labor.
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.
It is well to be in places where man is little, and God is great,—where what he sees all around him has the same look as it had a thousand years ago, and will have the same, in all likelihood, when he has been a thousand years in his grave. It abates and rectifies a man, if he is worth the process.
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; to recall mankind from the by-paths where they turn, into that broad path of salvation which all know, but few tread.
Pride is not the heritage of man; humility should dwell with frailty, and atone for ignorance, error, and imperfection.
What two ideas are more inseparable than Beer and Britannia?
Serenely full, the epicure would say, Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.
Mankind are always happy for having been happy; so that, if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.
What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?
Praise is the best diet for us, after all.
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.
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