John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
4864 Sydney Smith 1771-1845 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 4864 |
| AUTHOR: | Sydney Smith (1771–1845) |
| QUOTATION: | He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Lady Holland’s Memoir. Vol. i. p. 259. |
| Note 1. See Cowper, Quotation 68. [back] |