Tobias Smollett Quotes

• Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.

  Tobias Smollett

  Sarcastic, Wise, Wisdom

  Tobias Smollett, Sir Walter Scott (1835). “Select works of Tobias Smollett ...: With a memoir of the life and writings of the author”, p.24

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• Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.

  Tobias Smollett

  Courage, Motivation, Fall

  Tobias Smollett (2014). “Poems, Plays, and "The Briton"”, p.36, University of Georgia Press

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• I think for my part one half of the nation is mad - and the other not very sound.

  Tobias Smollett

  Thinking, Mad, Sound

  'The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves' (1762) ch. 6

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• Glory is the child of peril.

  Tobias Smollett

  Children, Glory, Peril

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• One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage.

  Tobias Smollett

  Zest, Giving, Ham

  Tobias Smollett (1820). “The expedition of Humphry Clinker”, p.161

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• Nature and wisdom are not, but should be, companions.

  Tobias Smollett

  Nature, Should, Companion

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• The capital is become an overgrown monster; which, like a dropsical head, will in time leave the body and extremities without nourishment and support.

  Tobias Smollett

  Time, Support, Monsters

  'The Expedition of Humphry Clinker' (1771) vol. 1, letter from Matthew Bramble, 29 May

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• Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.

  Tobias Smollett

  Writing, Men, Age

  Tobias Smollett, Sir Walter Scott (1835). “Select works of Tobias Smollett ...: With a memoir of the life and writings of the author”, p.312

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• Opposition is the very spur of love.

  Tobias Smollett

  Spurs, Opposition

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• There is not room to swing a cat.

  Tobias Smollett

  Cat, Swings, Rooms

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• To the valiant actions speak alone.

  Tobias Smollett

  Action, Speak, Valiant

  Tobias Smollett, John Moore (1872). “The Works of Tobias Smollett, M. D. With Memoirs of His Life: to which is Prefixed A View of the Commencement and Progress of Romance”, p.189

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• Number three is always fortunate.

  Tobias Smollett

  Numbers, Three, Fortunate

  Tobias George Smollett, Tobias Smollett (1831). “The adventures of Peregrine Pickle: In which are included, Memoirs of a lady of quality. In four volumes. ...”, p.58

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• False as the fowler's artful snare.

  Tobias Smollett

  Snares, Falsehood

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.251

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• Ridiculous modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.

  Tobias Smollett

  Ignorance, Ridiculous, Folly

  Tobias Smollett (1806). “Adventures of an Atom. Expedition of Humphrey Clinker”, p.363

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• And hearts resolved and hands prepared The blessings they enjoy to guard.

  Tobias Smollett

  Heart, Blessing, Hands

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.245

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• True courage scorns to vent her prowess in a storm of words; and to the valiant action speaks alone.

  Tobias Smollett

  Storm, Action, Speak

  Tobias Smollett, John Moore (1872). “The Works of Tobias Smollett, M. D. With Memoirs of His Life: to which is Prefixed A View of the Commencement and Progress of Romance”, p.189

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• Thy spirit, Independence, let me share! Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.

  Tobias Smollett

  Heart, Eye, Eagles

  Tobias Smollett (1806). “Life of Smollett, by R. Anderson. Roderick Random”, p.163

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• A mere index hunter, who held the eel of science by the tail. Index-hunter is a term used mockingly, meaning one who acquires superficial knowledge merely by consulting indexes. The '[holding] the eel of science by the tail' allusion was used in 1728 by Alexander Pope (q.v.).

  Tobias Smollett

  Learning, Science, Superficial Knowledge

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• On Leven's banks, while free to rove, And tune the rural pipe to love, I envied not the happiest swain That ever trod the Arcadian plain. Pure stream! in whose transparent wave My youthful limbs I wont to lave; No torrents stain thy limpid source, No rocks impede thy dimpling course, That sweetly warbles o'er its bed, With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread.

  Tobias Smollett

  Rocks, White, Bed

  Tobias Smollett (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Tobias Smollett (Illustrated)”, p.2159, Delphi Classics

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• The bread I eat in London, is a deleterious paste, mixed up with chalk, alum, and bone ashes: insipid to the taste, and destructive to the constitution.

  Tobias Smollett

  Ashes, London, Taste

  Tobias Smollett (1808). “The expedition of Humphry Clinker. By the author of Roderic Random”, p.143

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• The Highlanders regale themselves with whisky. They find it an excellent preservation against the winter cold. It is given with great success to the infants in the confluent smallpox.

  Tobias Smollett

  Food, Winter, Cooking

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• I find that the old Roman baths of this quarter, were found covered by an old burying ground, belonging to the Abbey; through which, in all probability, the water drains in its passage; so that as we drink the decoction of the living bodies at the Pump-room, we swallow the strainings of rotten bones and carcasses at the private bath - I vow to God, the very idea turns my stomach!

  Tobias Smollett

  Ideas, Water, Rotten

  Tobias Smollett (1809). “The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett: Sir Launcelot Greaves. Humphry Clinker”

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• A man's opinion of danger varies at different times, in consequence of an irregular tide of animal spirits; and he is actuated by considerations which he dares not avow.

  Tobias Smollett

  Animal, Men, Different

  Tobias Smollett (1822). “The History of England: From the Revolution in 1688, to the Death of George II. Designed as a Continuation of Hume”, p.184

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• Deep in the frozen regions of the north,
  A goddess violated brought thee forth,
  Immortal Liberty!

  Tobias Smollett

  Liberty, Frozen, Goddess

  Tobias Smollett, John Moore (1872). “The Works of Tobias Smollett, M. D. With Memoirs of His Life: to which is Prefixed A View of the Commencement and Progress of Romance”, p.334

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• Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts,
  By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove, or cell;
  Where the pois'd lark his evening ditty chants,
  And health, and peace, and contemplation dwell.

  Tobias Smollett

  Country, Cells, Mountain

  Tobias Smollett (1806). “The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett, M. D.”, p.512

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