01c. 1740 ADDigressions incontestably are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
02c. 1740 ADEvery time a man smiles, much more when he laughs, it adds something to his fragment of life.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
03c. 1740 ADFancy is capricious; wit must not be searched for, and pleasantry will not come in at a call.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
04c. 1740 ADGet on the crupper of a good stout hypothesis, and you may ride round the world.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
05c. 1740 ADGravity is a taught trick to gain credit of the world for more sense and knowledge than a man is worth.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
06c. 1740 ADGravity, 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
07c. 1740 ADHonours, 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
08c. 1740 ADImpatience is the principal cause of most of our irregularities and extravagances.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
09c. 1740 ADIn solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
10c. 1740 ADKeyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness than all the other holes in this world put together.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
12c. 1740 ADLessons 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
13c. 1740 ADMadness 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
14c. 1740 ADMan has seldom an offer of kindness to make to a woman but she has a presentiment of it some moments before.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
15c. 1740 ADMan's body and his mind are exactly like a jerkin and a jerkin's lining—rumple the one, you rumple the other.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
16c. 1740 ADMysteries which must explain themselves are not worth the loss of time which a conjecture about them takes up.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
17c. 1740 ADNature never made an unkind creature; ill-usage and bad habits have deformed a fair and lovely creation.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
19c. 1740 ADPoets should turn philosophers in age, as Pope did. We are apt to grow chilly when we sit out our fire.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
20c. 1740 ADRemember this: that your conscience is not a law—no; God and reason made the law, and has placed conscience within you to determine.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
21c. 1740 ADSmall 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
22c. 1740 ADSmelfungus in the grand portico of the Pantheon says, "'Tis nothing but a huge cockpit."Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
23c. 1740 ADSome 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.Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
24c. 1740 ADSweet pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary moments!Laurence Sterne / quote ↗
