Laurence Sterne, (1713-1768), British Author Quotes

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

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; -- one cold external winter would reign in every page of it; restore them to the writer; -- he steps forth like a bridegroom, -- bids All-hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail.

Now or never was the time.

There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman whilst she is making sausages.

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!

Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.

God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.

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.

Lovers are apt to hear through their eyes, but the safest way is to see through their ears. Who was it that said, "Speak, that I may see you?"

I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me to the contrary.