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Adventure
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A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.
-Laurence Sterne
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Atheism
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First, whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his creed. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors, and where they separate, depend upon it, 'Tis for no other cause but quietness sake.
-Laurence Sterne
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When ever a person talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not their reason, but their passions, which have got the better of their beliefs. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors; and when they separate, depend on it that it is for the sake of peace and quiet.
-Laurence Sterne
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Certainty
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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.
-Laurence Sterne
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Doctors
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There are worse occupations in this world than feeling a woman's pulse.
-Laurence Sterne
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Eccentric, Eccentricity
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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?
-Laurence Sterne
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Forgiveness
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Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.
-Laurence Sterne
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Health
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People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy.
-Laurence Sterne
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Humor
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For every ten jokes you acquire a hundred enemies.
-Laurence Sterne
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'Tis no extravagant arithmetic to say, that for every ten jokes, thou hast got an hundred enemies; and till thou hast gone on, and raised a swarm of wasps about thine ears, and art half stung to death by them, thou wilt never be convinced it is so.
-Laurence Sterne
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Journeys
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Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest.
-Laurence Sterne
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Knowledge
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The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
-Laurence Sterne
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Laughter
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I am persuaded that every time a man smiles, but much more so when he laughs, it adds something to this fragment of life.
-Laurence Sterne
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Pain
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Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other.
-Laurence Sterne
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Parenting
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I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me.
-Laurence Sterne
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Pessimism
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We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.
-Laurence Sterne
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Pleasure
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Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.
-Laurence Sterne
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Reading
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One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.
-Laurence Sterne
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Reason
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Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.
-Laurence Sterne
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Religion
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Look into the world
-Laurence Sterne, Sermons sermon 3, Philanthropy recommended ed. Melvyn New, University Press of Florida (1996), 1760
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Respect
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Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.
-Laurence Sterne
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Solitude
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In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
-Laurence Sterne
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Storytelling
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The history of a soldier's wound beguiles the pain of it.
-Laurence Sterne
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Teaching
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Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions.
-Laurence Sterne
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Books by and about Laurence Sterne