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Sydney Smith
(3 Jun 1771 - 22 Feb 1845)
English clergyman and essayist who took orders in 1794, was parson in Foston-le-Clay, Yorkshire (1809-28), and later canon of St. Paul's, London(1831-45). He co-founded the Edinburgh Review (1802) and was a witty commentator on life in general. He espoused parliamentary reform. In his Letters of Peter Plymley (1807), he defended Catholic emancipation.
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Science Quotes by Sydney Smith (7 quotes)
[T]he 47th proposition in Euclid might now be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse.
— Sydney Smith
In 'Peter Plymley's Letters', Essays Social and Political (1877), 530.
Conquest has explored more than ever curiosity has done; and the path for science has been commonly opened by the sword.
— Sydney Smith
In 'Island of Ceylon', Edinburgh Review (1803) collected in The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith (1840), 350.
I have come to the conclusion that mankind consume twice too much food. According to my computation, I have eaten and drunk, between my tenth and seventieth year, forty-four horse-wagon loads more than was good for me.
— Sydney Smith
Quoted in Lydia Maria Francis Child, 'Hints About Health', Looking Toward Sunset (1891), 428.
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.
— Sydney Smith
Letter to a child (22 Jul 1835). In Sydney Smith, Saba Holland, with Sarah Austin (ed.), A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith by his Daughter, Lady Holland (4th ed. 1855), Vol. 2, 364.
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
Lady Saba Holland, A Memoir of The Reverend Sydney Smith (1854), 253.
Science is [William Whewell’s] forte and omniscience is his foible.
— Sydney Smith
Quoted in J. Todhunter (ed.), William Whewell: An Account of His Writings With Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence (1876), Vol. 1, 410.
The longer I live, the more I am convinced that the apothecary is of more importance than Seneca; and that half the unhappiness in the world proceeds from little stoppages; from a duct choked up, from food pressing in the wrong place, from a vexed duodenum, or an agitated pylorus.
— Sydney Smith
'Of the Body', in Sydney Smith, Saba Holland, with Sarah Austin (ed.), A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith by his Daughter, Lady Holland (3rd ed. 1855), Vol. 1, 174.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
