Laurence Sterne

“In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.”

“I am persuaded that every time a man smiles - but much more so when he laughs - it adds something to this fragment of life.”

“People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy.”

“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.”

“Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness.”

“Religion which lays so many restraints upon us, is a troublesome companion to those who will lay no restraints upon themselves.”

“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.”

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.”

“One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.”

“If death, said my father, reasoning with himself, is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body;--and if it is true that people can walk about and do their business without brains,--then certes the soul does not inhabit there.”

“What is the life of man! Is it not to shift from side to side? From sorrow to sorrow? To button up one cause of vexation! And unbutton another!”

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

“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!”

“Titles of honor are like the impressions on coins, which add no value to gold or silver, but only render brass current.”