“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.”
Lecture XIX : On the Conduct of the Understanding, Part II
Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)
"Parisian Morals and Manners", published in The Edinburgh Review (1843)
Smith might have been thinking of the final words of Swift's "Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation": "It is not a Fault in Company to talk much; but to continue it long, is certainly one; for, if the Majority of those who are got together be naturally silent or cautious, the Conversation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one among them, who can start new Subjects, provided he doth not dwell upon them, but leaveth Room for Answers and Replies".
“Live always in the best company when you read.”
Vol. I, ch. 10
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter V
“Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.”
Vol. I, ch. 9
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
“We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal.”
Vol. I, ch. 2, p. 60.
Motto proposed by Smith for the Edinburgh Review.
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
“My idea of heaven is, eating pâté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.”
View ascribed by Smith to his friend Henry Luttrell; reported in Hesketh Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1934), p. 236