151 Quotes by Sydney Smith

As the French say, there are three sexes - men, women, and clergymen.

A great deal of talent is lost in the world for want of courage.

The object of preaching is to constantly remind mankind of what they keep forgetting; not to supply the intellect, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.

Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.

All this class of pleasures inspires me with the same nausea as I feel at the sight of rich plum-cake or sweetmeats; I prefer the driest bread of common life.

A nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigor of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze that he might chuckle over the splendor.

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

Take short views, hope for the best and trust in God.

Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in.