Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting consumption.

Read more about Laurence Sterne:  Biography, Foreign Travel, Works, Bibliography

Famous quotes by laurence sterne:

    “Writing, when properly managed ... is but a different name for conversation: As no one ... would venture to talk all;Mso no author, who understands the just boundaries of decorum and good breeding, would presume to think all: The truest respect which you can pay to the reader’s understanding, is to ... leave him something to imagine, in his turn, as well as yourself.”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    “Dear sensibility! source inexhausted of all that’s precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows!... eternal fountain of our feelings!—’tis here I trace thee—and this is thy divinity which stirs within me ...—all comes from thee, great—great SENSORIUM of the world!”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    “When the affections so kindly break loose, Joy, is another name for Religion.”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    “Most of us are aware of and pretend to detest the barefaced instances of that hypocrisy by which men deceive others, but few of us are upon our guard or see that more fatal hypocrisy by which we deceive and over-reach our own hearts.”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    “I pity the men whose natural pleasures are burthens, and who fly from joy ... as if it was really an evil in itself.... Poor unfortunate creature that he is! as if the causes of anguish in the heart were not enow—but he must fill up the measure, with those of caprice; and not only walk in a vain shadow,—but disquiet himself in vain too.”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)