Wit and Wisdom: A Selection of the Most Memorable Passages in His Writings and ConversationG.P. Putnam's Sons, 1889 - 355 pages |
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absurd American animal Archbishop of Canterbury Archdeacon Singleton Ballot Bantry Bay beautiful believe better Bishop Bishop of London Botany Bay Catholic cause character Church civil clergy clergyman common death dinner Dugald Stewart earth Edinburgh Review England English evil eyes favor fear feeling Finchley Common G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS gentlemen give habit happiness hear heart Hindoos honest honor House human ideas ignorant Irish justice knowledge labor laws live London look Lord Lord John Russell Lord Sidmouth mankind manner means ment mind moral nation nature ness never object opinion pain parish passions person pleasure political poor reason religion remember respect ruin sense species spirit Sydney Smith talents talk taste thing thought thousand tion truth turn understanding Vellum virtue Whig whole wisdom young
Popular passages
Page 50 - ... restores him to health, — on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal, — on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice, — on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride, — at bed or board, couchant or levant, — we must pay.
Page 408 - O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure?
Page 244 - I do not mean to be disrespectful ; but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion.
Page 244 - The Atlantic was roused : Mrs. Partington's spirit was up ; but I need not tell you the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest.
Page 50 - ... paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to his fathers, — to be taxed no more.
Page 6 - It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.
Page 428 - For God's sake do not drag me into another war. I am worn down and worn out with crusading, and defending Europe and protecting mankind ; I must think a little of myself. I am sorry for the Spaniards ; I am sorry for the Greeks ; I deplore the fate of the Jews ; the people of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the most detestable tyranny ; Bagdad is oppressed ; I do not like the present state of the Delta ; Thibet is not comfortable.
Page 206 - Pulpit discourses have insensibly dwindled from speaking to reading; a practice, of itself, sufficient to stifle every germ of eloquence. It is only by the fresh feelings of the heart, that mankind can be very powerfully affected. What can be more ludicrous, than an orator delivering stale indignation, and fervour of a week old; turning over whole pages of violent passions, written out in German text; reading the tropes and apostrophes into which he is hurried by the...
Page 311 - ... is then a beautiful and delightful part of our nature. There is no more interesting spectacle than to see the effects of wit upon the different characters of men ; than to observe it expanding caution, relaxing dignity, unfreezing coldness, teaching age, and care, and pain to smile, extorting reluctant gleams of pleasure from melancholy, and Charming -even the pangs of grief.
Page 288 - They have commonly passed the first half of life in the gross darkness of indigent humility,— overlooked, mistaken, contemned, by weaker men,— thinking, while others slept, reading while others rioted, feeling something within that told them they should not always be kept down among the dregs of the world.