Famous Sterne Quotations

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"Heat is in proportion to the want of true knowledge"
by Laurence Sterne
"Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas."
by Laurence Sterne
"A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything."
by Laurence Sterne
"Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood."
by Laurence Sterne
"How frequently are the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug. How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputation of bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!"
by Sterne
"One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct."
by Sterne
"Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at."
by Sterne
"Solitude is the best nurse of wisdom."
by Laurence Sterne
"To have respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners."
by Lawrence Sterne
"To have respect for ourselves guides our morals and to have a deference for others governs our manners."
by Lawrence Sterne
"When ever a person talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not their reason, but their passions, which have got the better of their beliefs. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors; and when they separate, depend on it that it is for the sake of peace and quiet."
by Laurence Sterne
"First, whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his creed. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors, and where they separate, depend upon it, 'Tis for no other cause but quietness sake."
by Laurence Sterne
"Positiveness is an absurd foible. If you are in the right, it lessens your triumph; if in the wrong, it adds shame to your defeat."
by Laurence Sterne
"There are worse occupations in this world than feeling a woman's pulse."
by Laurence Sterne
"So long as a man rides his Hobby-Horse 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?"
by Laurence Sterne
"People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy."
by Laurence Sterne
"The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it."
by Laurence Sterne
"Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other."
by Laurence Sterne
"Look into the world"
by Laurence Sterne
"Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners."
by Laurence Sterne
"In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself."
by Laurence Sterne
"Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions."
by Laurence Sterne
"[I am] firmly persuaded that every time a man smiles,—but much more so, when he laughs, that it adds something to this Fragment of life."
by Laurence Sterne
"Alack-o-day, replied the corporal ... your honour knows I have neither wife or child—I can have no sorrows in this world."
by Laurence Sterne
"But the desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.... ——Endless is the Search of Tru..."
by Laurence Sterne
"Every thing in this world, said my father, is big with jest,—and has wit in it, and instruction too,—if we can but find it out."
by Laurence Sterne
"God, for wise reasons, has made our affairs in this world, almost as fickle and capricious as ourselves.—Pain and pleasure, like light and d..."
by Laurence Sterne
"How many thousands of [lives] are there every year that comes cast away, (in all civilized countries at least)—and consider'd as nothing but..."
by 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 in..."
by Laurence Sterne
"I will not argue the matter: Time wastes too fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen; the days and hours of..."
by Laurence Sterne
"If the heart beguiles itself in its choice [of a wife], and imagination will give excellencies which are not the portion of flesh and blood:Mw..."
by Laurence Sterne
"Let the torpid Monk seek heaven comfortless and alone—GOD speed him! For my own part, I fear, I should never so find the way: let me be wise..."
by Laurence Sterne
"—My brother Toby, quoth she, is going to be married to Mrs. Wadman. 'Then he will never,' quoth my father, 'be able to lie diagonally in his..."
by Laurence Sterne
"So that if you would form a just judgment of what is of infinite importance to you not to be misled in,—namely, in what degree of real merit..."
by Laurence Sterne
"The circumstances with which every thing in this world is begirt, give every thing in this world its size and shape;—and by tightening it, o..."
by Laurence Sterne
"The duce of any other rule have I to govern myself by in this affair—and if I had one ... I would twist it and tear it to pieces, and throw ..."
by Laurence Sterne
"The proper education of poor children [is] the ground-work of almost every other kind of charity.... Without this foundation first laid, how m..."
by Laurence Sterne
"There have been no sects in the christian world, however absurd, which have not endeavoured to support their opinions by arguments drawn from ..."
by Laurence Sterne
"To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right a..."
by Laurence Sterne
"'Tis to rebuke a vicious taste which has crept into thousands besides herself,—of reading straight forwards, more in quest of the adventures..."
by 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 force..."
by Laurence Sterne
"Upon looking back from the end of the last chapter and surveying the texture of what has been wrote, it is necessary, that upon this page and ..."
by Laurence Sterne
"We live in a world beset on all sides with mysteries and riddles—and so 'tis no matter—else it seems strange, that Nature, who makes every..."
by Laurence Sterne


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