The collection / 112 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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112 results · Page 4 of 5Play this collection ▷

01c. 1740 AD

(Dr. Slop has been uttering terrible curses against Obadiah) I declare, quoth my Uncle Toby, my heart would not let me curse the devil himself with so much bitterness.—He is the father of curses, replied Dr. Slop.—So am not I, replied my uncle.—But he is cursed and damned already to all eternity, replied Dr. Slop. I am sorry for it, quoth my Uncle Toby.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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02c. 1740 AD

What is the life of man? Is it not to turn from side to side? From sorrow to sorrow? To button up one cause of vexation and unbutton another?

Laurence Sterne / quote

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03c. 1740 AD

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.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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04c. 1740 AD

Before an affliction is digested, consolation comes too soon; and after it is digested, it comes too late; but there is a mark between these two, as fine, almost, as a hair, for a comforter to take aim at.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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05c. 1740 AD

Conscience is not law; no, God and reason made the law, and have placed conscience within you to determine.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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06c. 1740 AD

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.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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07c. 1740 AD

I would go fifty miles on foot to kiss the hand of that man whose generous heart will give up the reins of his imagination into his author's hands; be pleased, he knows not why, and cares not wherefore.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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08c. 1740 AD

Such a pearly row of teeth that sovereignty would have pawned her jewels for them.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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09c. 1740 AD

What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the span of his little life by him who interests his heart in everything.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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10c. 1740 AD

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.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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11c. 1740 AD

I have undertaken, you see, to write not only my life, but my opinions also; hoping and expecting that your knowledge of my character, and of what kind of a mortal I am, by the one, would give you a better relish for the other: As you proceed further with me, the slight acquaintance which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that, unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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12c. 1740 AD

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. Restore them to the writer - he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids them all-hail, brings in variety and forbids the appetite to fail.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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13c. 1740 AD

We don't love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we have done them

Laurence Sterne / quote

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14c. 1740 AD

—all I can say of the matter, is—That he has either a pumkin for his head—or a pippin for his heart,—and whenever he is dissected 'twill be found so.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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15c. 1740 AD

—I won't go about to argue the point with you,—'tis so,—and I am persuaded of it, madam, as much as can be, "That both man and woman bear pain or sorrow, (and, for aught I know, pleasure too) best in a horizontal position.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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16c. 1740 AD

I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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17c. 1740 AD

I am this month one whole year older than I was this time twelve-month; and having got, as you perceive, almost into the middle of my fourth volume—and no farther than to my first day's life—'tis demonstrative that I have three hundred and sixty-four days more life to write just now, than when I first set out; so that instead of advancing, as a common writer, in my work with what I have been doing at it—on the contrary, I am just thrown so many volumes back—

Laurence Sterne / quote

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18c. 1740 AD

It had ever, as I told the reader, been one of the singular blessings of my life, to be almost every hour of it miserably in love with some one....

Laurence Sterne / quote

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19c. 1740 AD

Human nature is the same in all professions.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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20c. 1740 AD

I could wish to spy the nakedness of their hearts, and through the different disguises of customs, climates, and religion, find out what is good in them, to fashion my own by. It is for this reason that I have not seen the Palais Royal - nor the facade of the Louvre - nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of pictures, statues, and churches - I conceive every fair being as a temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings and loose sketches hung up in it, than the Transfiguration of Raphael itself.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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21c. 1740 AD

Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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22c. 1740 AD

Cursed luck! —said he, biting his lip as he shut the door, —for man to be master of one of the finest chains of reasoning in nature, —and have a wife at the same time with such a head-piece, that he cannot hang up a single inference within side of it, to save his soul from destruction.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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23c. 1740 AD

Now don't let us give ourselves a parcel of airs, and pretend that the oaths we make free with in this land of liberty of ours are our own; and because we have the spirit to swear them,—imagine that we have had the wit to invent them too.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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24c. 1740 AD

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world - though the cant of hypocrites ihay be the worst - the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.

Laurence Sterne / quote

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