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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.

Sydney Smith

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Sydney Smith
Facts
Tell
Canning
Nothing
Fallacious
Believe
George
Never
Figures
Except
Belief
Science

More quotes by Sydney Smith

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Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation.
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Lucy, dear child, mind your arithmetic. You know in the first sum of yours I ever saw there was a mistake. You had carried two (as a cab is licensed to do), and you ought, dear Lucy, to have carried but one. Is this a trifle? What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors.
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Never give way to melancholy resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
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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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Take short views, hope for the best and trust in God.
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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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Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
Sydney Smith
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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.
Sydney Smith
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How can a bishop marry? How can he flirt? The most he can say is I will see you in the vestry after service.
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If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee.
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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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Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.
Sydney Smith
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I always fear that creation will expire before teatime.
Sydney Smith
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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.
Sydney Smith
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Hope is the belief, more or less strong, that joy will come.
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Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
Sydney Smith
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Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession do not run after distinctions and rewards but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.
Sydney Smith
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A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
Sydney Smith
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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.
Sydney Smith
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No man can ever end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior.
Sydney Smith