Top 30 Quotes & Sayings by Tobias Smollett

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Scottish novelist Tobias Smollett.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.

Scottish - Novelist | March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771

Source: Wikipedia

Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.

Tobias Smollett

Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.

Tobias Smollett

The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)

Tobias Smollett

There is not room to swing a cat.

Tobias Smollett

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

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

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

Tobias Smollett

Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that, when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together, in their shirts, and following the balls with utmost eagerness.

Tobias Smollett

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

Tobias Smollett

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

Tobias Smollett

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

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

Tobias Smollett

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

Glory is the child of peril.

Tobias Smollett

Number three is always fortunate.

Tobias Smollett

Opposition is the very spur of love.

Tobias Smollett

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

Tobias Smollett

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

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

A mere index hunter, who held the eel of science by the tail.

Tobias Smollett

To the valiant actions speak alone.

Tobias Smollett

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

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

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

Tobias Smollett

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

Tobias Smollett

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

False as the fowler's artful snare.

Tobias Smollett

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

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

Tobias Smollett

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

Tobias Smollett