Daily Dose

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

THE GREATER PART

"The greater part of human improvements, gentlemen, I am sorry to say, are made after war, tumult, bloodshed, and civil commotion: mankind seem to object to every species of gratuitous happiness, and to consider every advantage as too cheap, which is not purchased by some calamity."

From Four Speeches on the Reform Bill