The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.
Sydney SmithHuman beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.
Sydney SmithWhen you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one for a fellow creature.
Sydney SmithWhen I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces on me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool
Sydney Smith