Laurence Sterne Quotes

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Laurence Sterne

Profession : Novelist

Birth : November 24, 1713

Of all duties, prayer certainly is the sweetest and most easy.

Laurence Sterne

Sciences may be learned by rote, but wisdom not.

Laurence Sterne

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

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

Laurence Sterne

Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.

Laurence Sterne

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other.

Laurence Sterne

I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it.

Laurence Sterne

Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.

Laurence Sterne

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!

Laurence Sterne

Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest.

Laurence Sterne

Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.

Laurence Sterne

Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.

Laurence Sterne

I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor.

Laurence Sterne

Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.

Laurence Sterne

For every ten jokes you acquire a hundred enemies.

Laurence Sterne

People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy.

Laurence Sterne

'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause, and of obstinacy in a bad one.

Laurence Sterne

When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains.

Laurence Sterne

Titles of honor are like the impressions on coins, which add no value to gold or silver, but only render brass current.

Laurence Sterne

A dwarf who brings a standard along with him to measure his own size, take my word, is a dwarf in more articles than one.

Laurence Sterne