Laurence Sterne Quotes
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'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause - and of obstinacy in a bad one.
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Tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them before he gets to Paris.
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I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man.
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God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb.
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He was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip forever.
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Only the brave know how to forgive...A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
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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!
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Go poor Devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? - This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.
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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.
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Great wits jump.
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The Accusing Spirit which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blush'd as he gave it in; and the Recording Angel as he wrote it down, dropp'd a tear upon the word, and blotted it out forever.
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They order, said I, this matter better in France.
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Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; -& they are the life, the soul of reading; - take them out of this book for instance, - you might as well take the book along with them.
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The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
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I have got him fast hung up, quoth Didius to himself, upon one of the two horns of my dilemma - let him get off as he can.
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L-d! said my mother, what is all this story about? - A Cock and a Bull, said Yorick - And one of the best of its kind I ever heard.
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As we jogg on, either laugh with me, or at me, or in short do any thing—only keep your temper.
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Whistled up to London, upon a Tom Fool's errand.
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Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.
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Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
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Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, on holy-days, as well as working-days, to be showing the relics of learning, as monks do the relics of their saints - without working one - one single miracle with them?
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For every ten jokes, thou hast got a hundred enemies.
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A man should know something of his own country too, before he goes abroad.
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The history of a soldier's wound beguiles the pain of it.