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
men mind courtship
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.
imagination mind plight
When a poor disconsolated drooping creature is terrified from all enjoyment,--prays without ceasing 'till his imagination is heated,--fasts and mortifies and mopes, till his body is in as bad a plight as his mind; is it a wonder, that the mechanical disturbancesof an empty belly, interpreted by an empty head, should be mistook for [the] workings [of God].
mind may receiving
The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture.
men mind body
A man's body and his mind, with the utmost reverence to both I speak it, are exactly like a jerkin and a jerkin's lining; rumple the one, you rumple the other.
book reading mind
One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.
men mind literature
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.
objection smell strong
I should have no objection to this method, but that I think it must smell too strong of the lamp.
along appetite book brings cold external forbids forth might page reign restore soul steps winter
Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading! Take them out of this book, for instance, --you might as well take the book along with them; --one cold external winter would reign in every page of it; restore them to the writer; --he steps forth like a bridegroom, --bids All-hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail.
best-friends fool permanent
You can always tell a real friend; when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.
absurd adds certainty lessens shame
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.
along behind compels man neither quietly rides
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?
art greatness men
If thou art rich, then show the greatness of thy fortune; or what is better, the greatness of thy soul, in the meekness of thy conversation; condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed, and patronize the neglected. Be great.
prayer easy duty
Of all duties, prayer certainly is the sweetest and most easy.
hundred ten thou
For every ten jokes, thou hast got a hundred enemies.