Laurence Sterne Quotes

179 Sourced Quotes

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other.

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

Laurence Sterne
The highest stretch of improvement a single word is capable of, is a high metaphor.

Laurence Sterne
Shall we for ever make new books, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another?

Laurence Sterne
Heaven be their resource who have no other but the charity of the world, the stock of which, I fear, is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it.

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

Laurence Sterne
When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains.

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
A man cannot dress, but his ideas get cloath'd at the same time.

Laurence Sterne
Sciences may be learned by rote, but Wisdom not.

Laurence Sterne
Most of us are aware of and pretend to detest the barefaced instances of that hypocrisy by which men deceive others, but few of us are upon our guard or see that more fatal hypocrisy by which we deceive and over-reach our own hearts.

Laurence Sterne
Always carry it in thy mind, and act upon it, as a sure maxim: "That women are timid:" And 'tis well they are--else there would beno dealing with them.

Laurence Sterne
When a man is discontented with himself, it has one advantage - that it puts him into an excellent frame of mind for making a bargain.

Laurence Sterne
I know not whether the remark is to our honour or otherwise, that lessons of wisdom have never such power over us, as when they are wrought into the heart, through the ground-work of a story which engages the passions: Is it that we are like iron, and must first be heated before we can be wrought upon?

Laurence Sterne
O blessed Health! thou art above all gold and treasure; 'tis thou who enlargest the soul, and openest all its powers to receive instruction, and to relish virtue. He that has thee has little more to wish for, and he that is so wretched as to want thee, wants everything with thee.

Laurence Sterne
Philosophy has a fine saying for everything.-For Death it has an entire set.

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

Laurence Sterne
The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.

Laurence Sterne
As monarchs have a right to call in the specie of a state, and raise its value, by their own impression; so are there certain prerogative geniuses, who are above plagiaries, who cannot be said to steal, but, from their improvement of a thought, rather to borrow it, and repay the commonwealth of letters with interest again; and may wore properly be said to adopt, than to kidnap a sentiment, by leaving it heir to their own fame.

Laurence Sterne
A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.

Laurence Sterne
I would go fifty miles on foot to kiss the hand of that man whose generous heart will give up the reins of his imagination into his Author's hands; be pleased, he knows not why, and cares not wherefore.

Laurence Sterne
The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture.

Laurence Sterne
In all unmerciful actions, the worst of men pay this compliment at least to humanity, as to endeavour to wear as much of the appearance of it, as the case will well let them.

Laurence Sterne
True Shandeism, think what you will against it, opens the heart and lungs, and like all those affections which partake of its nature, it forces the blood and other vital fluids of the body to run freely through its channels, and makes the wheel of life run long and cheerfully round.

Laurence Sterne