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Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

Sydney Smith

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More quotes by Sydney Smith

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Scotland: That garret of the earth - that knuckle-end of England - that land of Calvin, oatcakes, and sulfur.
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Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.
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Find fault, when you must find fault, in private, if possible and some time after the offense, rather than at the time.
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The two women exchanged the type of glance women use when there is no knife handy.
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Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
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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.
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Heat, ma am! 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.
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If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee.
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A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
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What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia?
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Oh, don't tell me of facts, I never believe facts you know, [George] Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures.
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Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.
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I always fear that creation will expire before teatime.
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Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
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Take short views, hope for the best and trust in God.
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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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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.
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His enemies might have said before that he talked rather too much but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.
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Whatever you are by nature, keep to it never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.
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In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.
Sydney Smith