Quote for Saturday

The Rev. Sydney Smith (1771-1845) was a British clergyman and author who, among other things, felt (in 1820) that the United States had evolved to that point without producing anything of value in the arts (he was wrong, of course, but not too far wrong). He also had some good ideas, as in this quote:

"Every law which originated in ignorance and
malice, and gratifies the passions from which
it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors....
When 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."