—all I can say of the matter, is—That he has either a pumpkin for his head—or a pippin for his heart, —and whenever he is dissected 'twill be found so.

— Laurence Sterne

A man cannot dress without his ideas get clothed at the same time.

— Laurence Sterne

Crack, crack—crack, crack—crack, crack—so this is Paris! Quoth I (continuing in the same mood)—and this is Paris!—humph!—Paris! Cried I, repeating the name the third time— The first, the finest, the most brilliant— —The streets however are nasty; But it looks, I suppose, better than it smells—crack, crack—crack, crack—

— Laurence Sterne

Cursed luck! —said he, biting his lip as he shut the door, —for man to be master of one of the finest chains of reasoning in nature, —and have a wife at the same time with such a head-piece, that he cannot hang up a single inference within side of it, to save his soul from destruction.

— Laurence Sterne

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. Restore them to the writer - he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids them all-hail, brings in variety and forbids the appetite to fail.

— Laurence Sterne

Every time a man smiles and much more when he laughs it adds something to his fragment of life.

— Laurence Sterne

Great wits jump

— Laurence Sterne

Human nature is the same in all professions.

— Laurence Sterne

I am this month one whole year older than I was this time twelve-month; and having got, as you perceive, almost into the middle of my fourth volume—and no farther than to my first day's life—'tis demonstrative that I have three hundred and sixty-four days more life to write just now, than when I first set out; so that instead of advancing, as a common writer, in my work with what I have been doing at it—on the contrary, I am just thrown so many volumes back—

— Laurence Sterne

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

— Laurence Sterne