Laurence Sterne Quotes
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!
We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.
For I begin with writing the first sentence, — and trusting to Almighty God for the second.
The most affluent may be stripped of all, and find his worldly comforts, like so many withered leaves, dropping from him.
The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.
I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me to the contrary.
I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor.
An atheist is more reclaimable than a papist, as ignorance is sooner cured than superstition.
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.
Whatever stress some may lay upon it, a death-bed repentance is but a weak and slender plank to trust our all on.
There is one sweet lenitive at least for evils, which nature holds out; so I took it kindly at her hands, and fell asleep.
'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause,-and of obstinacy in a bad one.
A dwarf who brings a standard along with him to measure his own size, take my word, is a dwarf in more articles than one.
Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.
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.
I never drink. I cannot do it, on equal terms with others. It costs them only one day; but me three, the first in sinning, the second in suffering, and the third in repenting.
Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a bitter draught.
Before an affliction is digested, consolation ever comes too soon; and after it is digested, it comes too late.
The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture.
We may imitate the Deity in all His attributes; but mercy is the only one in which we can pretend to equal Him. We cannot, indeed, give like God; but surely we may forgive like Him.
Death opens the gate of fame, and shuts the gate of envy after it; it unlooses the chain of the captive, and puts the bondsman's task into another man's hand.
Any one may do a casual act of good-nature; but a continuation of them shows it a part of the temperament.
Some people pass through life soberly and religiously enough, without knowing way, or reasoning about it, but, from force of habit merely, go to heaven like fools.
Shall we for ever make new books, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another?
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.
When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion,--or, in other words, when his HOBBY-HORSE grows head- strong,--farewell cool reason and fair discretion.
Hail! the small courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it, like grace and beauty, which beget inclinations to love at first sight; it is ye who open the door and let the stranger in.
If a man has a right to be proud of anything, it is of a good action done as it ought to be, without any base interest lurking at the bottom of it.
Great is the power of Eloquence; but never is it so great as when it pleads along with nature, and the culprit is a child strayed from his duty, and returned to it again with tears.
Positiveness is a most absurd foible. If you are in the right, it lessens your triumph; if in the wrong, it adds shame to your defeat.
There is such a torture, happily unknown to ancient tyranny, as talking a man to death. Marcus Aurelius advises to assent readily to great talkers--in hopes, I suppose, to put an end to the argument.
My father, whose way was to force every event in nature into an hypothesis, by which means never man crucified TRUTH at the rate he did.
A man who values a good night's rest will not lie down with enmity in his heart, if he can help it.
Human nature is the same in all professions.
