Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sternewas an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He wrote the novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, and also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting consumption...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 November 1713
CountryIreland
dancing gentleman excuse
Precedents are the disgrace of legislation. They are not wanted to justify right measures, are absolutely insufficient to excuse wrong ones. They can only be useful to heralds, dancing masters, and gentlemen ushers.
book people titles
The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
father people soul
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.
strong fancy chapters
I have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy.--Accordingly I set off thus:
time father fit
Is this a fit time, said my father to himself, to talk of Pensions and Grenadiers?
austin stories world
The improbability of a malicious story serves but to help forward the currency of it, because it increases the scandal. So that, in such instances, the world is like the pious St. Austin, who said he believed some things because they were absurd and impossible.
real acquiescence definitions
There is no such thing as real happiness in life. The justest definition that was ever given of it was "a tranquil acquiescence under an agreeable delusion"--I forget where.
book pouring mixtures
Shall we for ever make new books, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another?
joy feelings sorrow
Dear sensibility! Source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! Eternal fountain of our feelings! 'tis here I trace thee and this is thy divinity which stirs within me...All comes from thee, great-great SENSORIUM of the world!
life men sorrow
What is the life of man! Is it not to shift from side to side? From sorrow to sorrow? To button up one cause of vexation! And unbutton another!
joy devil literature
So much of motion, is so much of life, and so much of joy, and to stand still, or get on but slowly, is death and the devil.
pain heart judging
When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains.
health people treasure
People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy.
wisdom passion heart
Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions.