Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Laurence Sterne

Quote by Laurence Sterne

Work

The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself

This volume is a compilation of various writings by Laurence Sterne, featuring his renowned novel 'The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy,' known for its complex narrative structure and humorous commentary on human nature. It also includes Sterne's own biography, written by him. The collection showcases Sterne's wit and philosophical musings, reflecting the literary trends of his time. more

Author

Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne, born on November 24, 1713, and died on March 18, 1768, was a prominent English novelist of the 18th century. He is best known for his novel 'Tristram Shandy', which is considered a pioneer of modern fiction and is renowned for its unique narrative style and profound insights into human nature. more

You May Also Like

“So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy to the contrary, was not so much a state of composition, as a state of warfare; and his probation in it, precisely that of any other man militant upon earth,--both depending alike, not half so much upon the degrees of his WIT--as his RESISTANCE.”

MenStatesMightEarthHalfDegreesContraryWitResistanceFancyWarfareCompositionMilitantProbation
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent., Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters, &c. With a Life of the Author Written by Himself
Create image

“Upon looking back from the end of the last chapter and surveying the texture of what has been wrote, it is necessary, that upon this page and the five following, a good quantity of heterogeneous matter be inserted, to keep up that just balance betwixt wisdom and folly, without which a book would not hold together a single year.”

YearsHas BeensBookEndsMatterFunnyTogetherLastsFiveBalancePagesSurpriseFollowingFollyQuantityChaptersLooking BackTexture
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne, in One Volume
Create image

“I know not whether the remark is to our honour or otherwise, that lessons of wisdom have never such power over us, as when they are wrought into the heart, through the ground-work of a story which engages the passions: Is it that we are like iron, and must first be heated before we can be wrought upon?”

KnowsFirstsHeartStoriesPassionFictionLessonsIronHonourMaximsRemarks
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne ...: With a Life of the Author
Create image

“Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions--tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?... If nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece--must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?”

IfsMenShouldHeartWholeDesirePassionKindnessPiecesHuman NatureColdShould HaveWarmArguingDrawingTemptationMaskThreadClayLukeWarm Heart
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself
Create image

“Conversation is a traffick; and if you enter into it, without some stock of knowledge, to ballance the account perpetually betwixtyou,--the trade drops at once: and this is the reasonwhy travellers have so little [good] conversation with natives,--owing to their [the natives'] suspicionthat there is nothing to be extracted from the conversationworth the trouble of their bad language.”

IfsLittlesLanguageTroubleConversationTravelAccountsTradeForeignersTravellerOwingGood ConversationBad Language
Author:Laurence Sterne
Create image