Laurence Sterne quotes
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768): Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric. The library holds 82 quotes by Laurence Sterne, drawn from Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.), Sermon, Maria and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, health, kindness, power, grief
The best-known Laurence Sterne quotes
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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.
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. vi, Chap. viii -
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
Sermon xxvii -
Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.
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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!
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. iii, Chap. xii -
People who are always taking care of their health are like misers, who are hoarding up a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy.
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Freethinkers are generally those who never think at all.
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God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
Maria Disputed attribution -
I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, “‘Tis all barren!”
In the Street. Calais Disputed attribution -
Some people pass through life soberly and religiously enough, without knowing why, or reasoning about it, but, from force of habit merely, go to heaven like fools.
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When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion—or, in other words, when his hobby-horse grows headstrong—farewell cool reason and fair discretion!
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Remember this: that your conscience is not a law—no; God and reason made the law, and has placed conscience within you to determine.
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An ounce of a man’s own wit is worth a pound of other peoples’.
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When we cannot get at the very thing we wish, never to take up with the next best in degree to it, that’s pitiful beyond description.
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Sweet pliability of man’s spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary moments!
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When a misfortune is impending, I cry, “God forbid!” but when it falls upon me, I say, “God be praised!”
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There is a certain mien and motion of the body and all its parts, both in acting and speaking, which argues a man well within.
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What persons are by starts, they are by nature. You see them at such times off their guard. Habit may restrain vice, and virtue may be obscured by passion, but intervals best discover the man.
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Smelfungus in the grand portico of the Pantheon says, “‘Tis nothing but a huge cockpit.”
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Poets should turn philosophers in age, as Pope did. We are apt to grow chilly when we sit out our fire.
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Small curses upon great occasions are but so much waste of our strength and soul’s health to no manner of purpose; they are like sparrow-shot fired against a bastion.
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Death opens the gate of fame, and shuts the gate of envy after it.
After Bacon -
Nothing is so perfectly amusement as a total change of ideas.
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Honours, like impressions upon coin, may give an ideal and local value to a bit of base metal; but gold and silver will pass all the world over, without any other recommendation than their own weight.
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“Our armies swore terribly in Flanders,” cried my Uncle Toby, “but nothing to this.”
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. iii, Chap. xi -
The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it. We lose the right of complaining sometimes by forbearing it, but we often treble the force.
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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.
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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.
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Impatience is the principal cause of most of our irregularities and extravagances.
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We can have no dependence upon morality without religion; so, on the other hand, there is nothing better to be expected from religion without morality.
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Courtship may be said to consist of a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.
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Fancy is capricious; wit must not be searched for, and pleasantry will not come in at a call.
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Every time a man smiles, much more when he laughs, it adds something to his fragment of life.
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Keyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness than all the other holes in this world put together.
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The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture.
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When you are predetermined to take one soul’s advice, act without consulting further with any soul living.
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We are as turkeys driven, with a stick and red clout, to market.
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Lessons of wisdom have never such power over us as when they are wrought into the heart through the groundwork of a story which engages the passions.
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I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, “It is all barren.”
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The world is all barren to him who will not cultivate the fruit it offers.
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What have I to do,… either with your amusements or your pleasures, unless it was in my power to increase their measure?
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Mysteries which must explain themselves are not worth the loss of time which a conjecture about them takes up.
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To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners.
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Man’s body and his mind are exactly like a jerkin and a jerkin’s lining—rumple the one, you rumple the other.
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The way to fame is like the way to heaven—through much tribulation.
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Such a pearly row of teeth that sovereignty would have pawned her jewels for them.
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There is no cause why one man’s nose is longer than another’s, but because that God pleases to have it so.
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Our passions and principles are steady in frenzy; but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.
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In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
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Madness is consistent, which is more than can be said for poor reason. Our passions and principles are steady in frenzy, but begin to shift and waver as we return to reason.
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Gravity, with all its pretensions, was no better, but often worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it, viz., a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind.
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When a man smiles, and much more when he laughs, it adds something to his fragment of life.
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Conscience is not law; no, God and reason made the law, and have placed conscience within you to determine.
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Gravity is a taught trick to gain credit of the world for more sense and knowledge than a man is worth.
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Nature never made an unkind creature; ill-usage and bad habits have deformed a fair and lovely creation.
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Conversation is a traffic; and if you enter into it without some stock of knowledge to balance the account perpetually, the trade drops at once.
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Digressions incontestably are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading.
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Get on the crupper of a good stout hypothesis, and you may ride round the world.
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Learning is the dictionary, but sense the grammar, of science.
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Two misfortunes are twice as many at least as are needful to be talked over at one time.
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The very essence of gravity is design, and consequently deceit; a taught trick to gain credit with the world for more sense and knowledge than a man is worth.
Where these quotes come from
- Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.) (5 quotes)
- Sermon (2 quotes)
- Maria (1 quote)
- In the Street. Calais (1 quote)
- After Bacon (1 quote)
- Sentimental Journey (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .