Quotes from Laurence Sterne

"Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," cried my uncle Toby—"but nothing to this."

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.

'Twould be as much as my life was worth.

First, whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his creed. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbors, and where they separate, depend upon it, 'Tis for no other cause but quietness sake.

We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.

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

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

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

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

Keyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness, than all other holes in this world put together.

I have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy.--Accordingly I set off thus:

People who are always taking care of their health are like misers, who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy.