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Laurence Sterne
73 quotes
“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 (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pester’d the world ever convince me to the contrary.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1594 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Maria. Compare: "Dieu mésure le froid à la brebis tondue" (translated: "God measures the cold to the shorn lamb"), Henri Estienne (1594), Prémices, etc, p. 47; "To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure", George …
“Dear Sensibility! source inexhausted of all that’s precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest thy martyr down upon his bed of straw—and ’tis thou who lift’st him up to Heaven!—Eternal Fountain of our feelings!”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he worst of human maladies is poverty — though that is a second lye — for poverty of spirit is worse than poverty of purse, by ten thousand per cent.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1762 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: to F--- Toulouse, March 29, 1762.
“Every time a man smiles,—but much more so, when he laughs, that it adds something to this Fragment of life.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1764 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Eliza Draper, Coxwould, July 17, 1764
“But this is his way; it is the language of his character; and, though one might wish it to be otherwise, yet I cannot tell what right any of us have to pass a severe sentence upon it, for no other reason in the world, but because our own failings are of a different complexion. And so much for all that.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall not die but live — in the mean time dear F. let us live as merrily but as innocently as we can. — It has ever been as good, if not better, than a bishoprick to me — and I desire no other.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1764 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Montpellier, Jan. 15, 1764.
“We must bring three parts in four of the treat along with us — In short we must be happy within — and then few things without us make much difference — This is my Shandean philosophy.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1764 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: York, November 16, 1764
“Friendship is the balm and cordial of life, and without it, ’tis a heavy load not worth sustaining.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1767 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bond Street, April 9, 1767. to Miss S
“As for the clergy — No — If I say a word against them, I'll be shot. — I have no desire, — and besides, if I had, — I durst not for my soul touch upon the subject, — with such weak nerves and spirits, and in the condition I am in at present, 'twould be as much as my life was worth, to deject and contrist myself with so bad and melancholy an account, — and therefore, 'tis safer to draw a curtain across, and hasten from it, as fast as I can, to the main and principal point I have undertaken to clear up, — and that is, How it comes to pass, that your men of least wit are reported to be men of most judgment.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My father was as proud of his eloquence as MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO could be for his life, and and for aught I am convinced of to the contrary at present, with as much reason: it was indeed his strength — and his weakness, too. — His strength — for he was by nature eloquent — and his weakness — for he was hourly a dupe to it; and provided an occasion in life would but permit him to shew his talents, or say either a wise thing, a witty, or a shrewd one — (bating the case of a systematic misfortune)— he had all he wanted.— A blessing which tied up my father's tongue, and a misfortune which let it loose with a good grace, were pretty equal: sometimes, indeed, the misfortune was the better of the two; for instance, where the pleasure of the harangue was as ten, and the pain of the misfortune was as five — my father gained half in half, and consequently was as well again off, as if it had never befallen him.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When issues of events like these my father is waiting for, are hanging in the scales of fate, the mind has the advantage of changing the principle of expectation three times, without which it would not have power to see it out.Curiosity governs the first moment; and the second moment is all economy to justify the expense of the first — and for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth moments, and so on to the day of judgment — 'tis a point of HONOUR.I need not be told, that the ethic writers have assigned this all to Patience; but that VIRTUE, methinks, has extent of domination sufficient of her own, and enough to do in it, without invading the few dismantled castles which HONOUR has left him upon the earth.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) first seen 1767 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book IX (1767), Ch. 10.
“No man cares to have his virtues the sport of contingencies—or one man may be generous, as another is puissant;—sed non quoad hanc—or be it as it may,—for there is no regular reasoning upon the ebbs and flows of our humours; they may depend upon the same causes, for aught I know, which influence the tides themselves: ’twould oft be no discredit to us, to suppose it was so: I’m sure at least for myself, that in many a case I should be more highly satisfied, to have it said by the world, “I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither sin nor shame,” than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was so much of both.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! said I,—still thou art a bitter draught! and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account.—’Tis thou, thrice sweet and gracious goddess, addressing myself to Liberty, whom all in public or in private worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till Nature herself shall change.—No tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron:—with thee to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled!”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Opinion, my dear fellow, somehow or other, rules all mankind; and not like a kind master, or, which would be more congenial, a gentle mistress, but like a tyrant, whose wish is power, and whose gratification is servility. — Opinion leads us by the ears, the eyes, — and, I had almost said, by the nose. It warps our understandings, confounds our judgments, dissipates experience and turns our passions to its purpose. In short, it becomes the governess of our lives, and usurps the place of reason, which it has kicked out of office. — This is among the strange truths which cannot be explained but by that mortifying description which time will display to your experience hereafter, with ten times the credit that would accompany any present endeavours of mine to the same purpose... A mistress, with all her arts and fascinations, may, in time, be got rid of; but opinion, once rooted, becomes a part of ourselves — it lives and dies with us.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Scarborough, August 29, 1787
“As far as my observation has reached, and the circle of it is by no means, a narrow one — an hard heart is always a cowardly heart. — Generosity and courage are associate virtues; and the character which possesses the former, must, in the nature of mental arrangements, be adorned with the latter. If I perceive a man to be capable of doing a mean action, — if I see him imperious and tyrannical; if he takes advantage of the weak to oppress, or of the poor to grind, or of the downcast to insult, — or is continually on the hunt after excuses not to do what he ought, — I determine such a man, though he may have fought fifty duels, to be a coward. — It is by no means a proof that a man is brave because he does not refuse to fight; — for we all know that cowards have fought, nay, — that cowards have conquered, — but a coward never performed a generous or a noble action: — and thou hast my authority to say, — and thou mightest find a worse, that a hard-hearted character never was a brave one. I say, thou mayst justly call such a man a coward, — and, if he should be spirited into a resentment of thy words — fear him not. — Tristram shall brighten his armour, and scour the rust from off his spear, and aid thee in the combat.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," cried my Uncle Toby, "but nothing to this.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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 (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, "'T is all barren!”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a bitter draught.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The sad vicissitude of things.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source