Laurence Sterne

Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest.

— Laurence Sterne

Only the brave know how to forgive...A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.

— Laurence Sterne

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me.

— Laurence Sterne

Pray, my dear," quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?" — "Good G—!" cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time, — "Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?

— Laurence Sterne

As we jogg on, either laugh with me, or at me, or in short do any thing—only keep your temper.

— Laurence Sterne

So long as a man rides his hobbyhorse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him — pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?

— Laurence Sterne

For every ten jokes, thou hast got a hundred enemies.

— Laurence Sterne

He was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip forever.

— Laurence Sterne

Whistled up to London, upon a Tom Fool's errand.

— Laurence Sterne

'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause — and of obstinacy in a bad one.

— Laurence Sterne

Persuasion hung upon his lips, and the elements of Logick and Rhetorick were so blended up in him, — and, withall, he had so shrewd guess at the weaknesses and passions of his respondent, — that NATURE might have stood up and said, — "This man is eloquent."

— Laurence Sterne

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; —& they are the life, the soul of reading; — take them out of this book for instance, — you might as well take the book along with them.

— Laurence Sterne

The history of a soldier's wound beguiles the pain of it.

— Laurence Sterne

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

— Laurence Sterne

Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.

— Laurence Sterne

Go poor Devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? — This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

— Laurence Sterne

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

— Laurence Sterne

I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it.

— Laurence Sterne

Great wits jump.

— Laurence Sterne

Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, cried my uncle Toby, — but nothing to this. — For my own part, I could not have a heart to curse my dog so.

— Laurence Sterne

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, — though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, — the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!

— Laurence Sterne

I have got him fast hung up, quoth Didius to himself, upon one of the two horns of my dilemma — let him get off as he can.

— Laurence Sterne

It had ever been the custom of the family, and by length of time was almost become a matter of common right, that the eldest son of it should have free ingress, egress, and regress into foreign parts before marriage, — not only for the sake of bettering his own private parts, by the benefit of exercise and change of so much air — but simply for the mere delectation of his fancy, by the feather put into his cap, of having been abroad.

— Laurence Sterne

Now or never was the time.

— Laurence Sterne

Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, on holy-days, as well as working-days, to be showing the relics of learning, as monks do the relics of their saints — without working one — one single miracle with them?

— Laurence Sterne

I am convinced, Yorick, continued my father, half reading and half discoursing, that there is a Northwest Passage to the intellectual world; and that the soul of man has shorter ways of going to work, in furnishing itself with knowledge and instruction, than we generally take with it.

— Laurence Sterne

The Accusing Spirit which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blush'd as he gave it in; and the Recording Angel as he wrote it down, dropp'd a tear upon the word, and blotted it out forever.

— Laurence Sterne

A man should know something of his own country too, before he goes abroad.

— Laurence Sterne

Ho! 'tis the time of salads.

— Laurence Sterne

I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man.

— Laurence Sterne

L—d! said my mother, what is all this story about? — A Cock and a Bull, said Yorick — And one of the best of its kind I ever heard.

— Laurence Sterne

They order, said I, this matter better in France.

— Laurence Sterne

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, 'Tis all barren!

— Laurence Sterne

Tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them before he gets to Paris.

— Laurence Sterne

Hail, ye small, sweet courtesies of life! for smooth do ye make the road of it.

— Laurence Sterne

God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb.

— Laurence Sterne

We get forwards in the world not so much by doing services, as receiving them: you take a withering twig, and put it in the ground; and then you water it, because you have planted it.

— Laurence Sterne

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.

— Laurence Sterne

If death, said my father, reasoning with himself, is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body;--and if it is true that people can walk about and do their business without brains,--then certes the soul does not inhabit there.

— Laurence Sterne

What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the span of his little life by him who interests his heart in everything.

— Laurence Sterne

Of all duties, prayer certainly is the sweetest and most easy.

— Laurence Sterne

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

— Laurence Sterne

Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.

— Laurence Sterne