Sydney Smith

Quotes

• “When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.”
• “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and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.”
• “Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love, and respect.”
• “In fact, when a nation has become free, it is extremely difficult to persuade them that their freedom is only to be preserved by perpetual and minute jealousy. They do not observe that there is a constant, perhaps an unconscious, effort on the part of their governors to diminish, and so ultimately to destroy, that freedom.”
• “It is true that every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.”
• “Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.”

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