Quotes Library

October 22, 2025

Minorities…are almost always in the right.

Sydney Smith (1771–1845), English clergyman, essayist, H. Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (1934), Jay p.344

Was not the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus right, that all the world is in flux? And is it not true that most change is incremental, and that change-agents begin as a tiny group that grows? That this minority—who first broached the change that so many other have embraced over time—is then (almost) always right?

Right, as to substance, maybe. But right because they have the right to exist, absolutely.


More Quotes

March 26, 2025
The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.
November 15, 2025
All ceremonial is ridiculous unless it is perfect.
April 27, 2025
00:29
A decent provision for the poor, is the true test of civilization.
Page 35 of 126