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The truth is, that most men want knowledge, not for itself, but for the superiority which knowledge confers; and the means they employ to secure this superiority, are as wrong as the ultimate object, for no man can ever end with being superior, who will not begin with being inferior.

— Sydney Smith Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)

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More quotes by Sydney Smith

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.

Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.

Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time.

The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.

It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.

Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sydney Smith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.