Tobias Smollett Quotes

Tobias Smollett offers lofty, poetic reflections on independence, truth and freedom that feel like a heroic chant.

16 quotes

1. Facts are stubborn things.

2. 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.

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

4. Thy fatal shafts unerring move, I bow before thine altar, Love!

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.

8. To the valiant actions speak alone.

9. Opposition is the very spur of love.

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

11. There is not room to swing a cat.

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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. False as the fowler's artful snare.

16. Every shot has its commission, d'ye see? We must all die at one time, as the saying is.