“What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?” — Sydney Smith Quote

What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?

Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume in 1737.

A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.

Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!

Politics does the equivalent of constantly trying to reinvent children's arithmetic and botching it. It does not build reliable foundations of knowledge.

Economics is half psychology and half Grade Three arithmetic, and the U.S. does not now have either half right.

I always thought that I was okay with arithmetic.

Schools are really bad now. Schools are not only bad in reading, writing and arithmetic, they're worse in cultural aspects, like in music and art. They don't teach you anything.

Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'