Daily Dose

From The Selected Writings of Sydney Smith, edited with an introduction by W. H. Auden

BUSYBODIES

"Beginning with the best intentions in the world, such societies must in all probability degenerate into a receptacle for every species of tittle-tattle, impertinence, and malice. Men whose trade is rat-catching, love to catch rats; the bug-destroyer seizes on his bug with delight; the suppressor is gratified by finding his vice."

From The Society for the Suppression of Vice