151 Quotes by Sydney Smith

Oh, don't tell me of facts, I never believe facts; you know, [George] Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures.

Avoid shame, but do not seek glory; nothing so expensive as glory.

The longer I live, the more I am convinced that the apothecary is of more importance than Seneca; and that half the unhappiness in the world proceeds from little stoppages; from a duct choked up, from food pressing in the wrong place, from a vexed duodenum, or an agitated pylorus.

He not only overflowed with learning, but stood in the slop.

People who love only once in their lives are shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom, or their lack of imagination

He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, women, and children on the face of the globe.

What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia?

You will find people ready enough to do the Samaritan without the oil and twopence.

Hope is the belief, more or less strong, that joy will come.