Quote#Kindness
Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any…
Quote bySydney Smith · 1771–1845
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Lady Holland's Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 3, p. 81.
English (original)
Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.
— Sydney Smith
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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and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty …
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.
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 …
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