Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones.

Quote by Sydney Smith

Topics: Sydney Smith Quotes

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have...

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have...

Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time,...

Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time,...

Poverty us no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.

Poverty us no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.

What you don't know would make a great book.

What you don't know would make a great book.

That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.

That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.

I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.

I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little...

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little...

Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.

Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.

My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was eleven...

My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was eleven...

What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?

What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving...

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving...

Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food,...

Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food,...

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and...

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and...

The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a...

The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a...

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a...

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a...

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little...

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little...

No furniture is so charming as books.

No furniture is so charming as books.

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long...

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long...

In the middle of the silence in a writer's house lies an invalid: the book...

In the middle of the silence in a writer's house lies an invalid: the book...