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It is a great pity but tis certain from every day's observation of man, that he may be set on fire like a candle, at either end provided there is a sufficient wick standing out.

Laurence Sterne

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Laurence Sterne
Age: 54 †
Born: 1713
Born: November 24
Died: 1768
Died: March 18
Autobiographer
Novelist
Religious
Writer
Men
Either
Like
Fire
Wick
Literature
Candle
Ends
Provided
Certain
Observation
May
Sufficient
Great
Pity
Every
Standing

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Digressions incontestably are the sunshine they are the life, the soul of reading.
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The way to fame, is like the way to heaven,--through much tribulation.
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Almost one half of our time is spent in telling and hearing evil of one another ... and every hour brings forth something strange and terrible to fill up our discourse and our astonishment.
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When my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rosebuds of delights and, having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthened and refreshed.
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Is this a fit time, said my father to himself, to talk of Pensions and Grenadiers?
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The best friends in the world may differ sometimes.
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When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains.
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The best hearts are ever the bravest.
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So often has my judgment deceived me in my life, that I always suspect it, right or wrong,--at least I am seldom hot upon cold subjects. For all this, I reverence truth as much as any body andif a man will but take me by the hand, and go quietly and search for itI'll go to the world's end with him:MBut I hate disputes.
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To write a book is for all the world like humming a song—be but in tune with yourself, madam, 'tis no matter how high or how low you take it.
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Plutarch has a fine expression, with regard to some woman of learning, humility, and virtue--that her ornaments were such as might be purchased without money, and would render any woman's life both glorious and happy.
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Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions.
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How many thousands of [lives] are there every year that comes cast away, (in all civilized countries at least)--and consider'd asnothing but common air, in competition of an hypothesis.
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A dwarf who brings a standard along with him to measure his own size, take my word, is a dwarf in more articles than one.
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I never drink. I cannot do it, on equal terms with others. It costs them only one day but me three, the first in sinning, the second in suffering, and the third in repenting.
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The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
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Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?
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There are many ways of inducing sleep--the thinking of purling rills, or waving woods reckoning of numbers droppings from a wet sponge fixed over a brass pan, etc. But temperance and exercise answer much better than any of these succedaneums.
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An English man does not travel to see English men.
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There is not a greater paradox in nature,--than that so good a religion [as Christianity] should be no better recommended by its professors.
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