Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) was a political writer and wit, born at Woodford, Essex, of partly English and partly Huguenot blood. He was educated at Westminster and Oxford, bred for the Church. After a brief curacy in Wiltshire settled in Edinburgh from 1798 to 1803, where, while officiating as a clergyman, he became one of the famous editors of the Edinburgh Review, and a contributor. He settled for a time afterwards in London, where he delivered a series of admirable lectures on ethics, till he was appointed to a small living in Yorkshire, and afterwards to a richer living in Somerset, and finally a canonry in St. Paul's. His writings deal with abuses of the period, and are, except his lectures perhaps, all out of date now.

Wisdom & Quotes

• I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy grave.

- letter to Miss G Harcourt, 1838

• Digestion is the great secret of life.

- letter to Arthur Kinglake, September 30, 1837

• Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but it is profoundly inconvenient.

- His Wit and Wisdom

• I am just going to pray for you at St Paul's, but with no very lively hope of success.

- quoted by H Pearson, The Smith of Smiths

S T Coleridge