Sydney Smith

"He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again."

"The history of the world shows us that men are not to be counted by their numbers, but by the fire and vigour of their passions; by their deep sense of injury; by their memory of past glory; by their …"

"But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such law…"

"Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence."

"Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time."

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

"Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due."

"Praise is the best diet for us, after all."