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Laurence Sterne citations

Laurence Sterne est un écrivain et membre du clergé britannique. Ses œuvres les plus célèbres sont Vie et Opinions de Tristram Shandy, gentilhomme , et le Voyage sentimental à travers la France et l'Italie . Sterne a également publié des sermons, écrit des mémoires et pris part à la vie politique locale. Il meurt à Londres après avoir lutté contre la tuberculose qui mina les dernières années de sa vie. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. novembre 1713 – 18. mars 1768
Laurence Sterne photo

Œuvres

Laurence Sterne: 52 citations0 J'aime

Laurence Sterne Citations

“« Je suis persuadé que chaque fois qu'un homme sourit et mieux encore lorsqu'il rit, il ajoute quelque chose à la durée de sa vie.»”

Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy, gentilhomme

“À mon sens, lorsque mes parents m'engendrèrent, l'un ou
l'autre aurait dû prendre garde à ce qu'il faisait : et
pourquoi pas tous deux puisque c'était leur commun devoir ?
S'ils avaient à cet instant pesé le pour et le contre, s'ils
s'étaient avisés que de leurs humeurs et dispositions
dominantes allaient dépendre non seulement la création d'un être
raisonnable mais peut-être l'heureuse formation de son corps,
sa température, son génie, le moule de son esprit et (si douteux
que cela leur parût), jusqu'à la fortune de leur maison — s'ils
avaient mûrement examiné tout cela, je suis persuadé que j'aurais
fait dans le monde une tout autre figure et serais apparu au
lecteur sous des traits sans doute fort différents de ceux qu'il
va voir. Croyez-moi, bonnes gens, la chose n'est pas une bagatelle
comme beaucoup d'entre vous le pensent. Vous n'êtes certes
pas sans avoir entendu parler des esprits, vitaux, de leur
transmission de père en fils, etc., et de bien d'autres merveilles. Eh
bien, je vous donne ma parole que le bon sens ou la folie d'un
homme, ses succès ou ses mésaventures dans le monde dépendent
pour les neuf dixièmes des mouvements de ces esprits, de leurs
activités et des voies où on les engage ; une fois lâchés, bien
ou mal l'affaire est conclue ; les voilà partis pêle-mêle à tous
les diables ; foulant et refoulant le même chemin, ils le rendent
aussi uni et lisse qu'une allée de jardin ; quand ils y sont une
fois accoutumés le Démon lui-même ne saurait les en divertir.

— Pardon mon ami, dit ma mère, n'avez-vous pas oublié de remonter la pendule ?

— Grand Dieu ! s'exclama mon père, non sans un effort pour
étouffer sa voix,
depuis la création du monde, une femme a-t-elle
jamais interrompu un homme par une question aussi sotte ?

— Pardon, que disait votre père ?

— Rien.”

Laurence Sterne

Citation

Laurence Sterne: Citations en anglais

“What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the span of his little life by him who interests his heart in everything.”

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Laurence Sterne

Variante: What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life by him who interests himself in everything.

“Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book II, Ch. 17.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

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

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“Human nature is the same in all professions.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“Shall we for ever make new books, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another?”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“Keyholes are the occasions of more sin and wickedness, than all other holes in this world put together.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I (1760), Ch. 1.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“We get forwards in the world not so much by doing services, as receiving them: you take a withering twig, and put it in the ground; and then you water it, because you have planted it.”

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Laurence Sterne livre A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

Paris.
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb.”

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Laurence Sterne livre A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

Maria. Compare: "Dieu mésure le froid à la brebis tondue" (translated: "God measures the cold to the shorn lamb"), Henri Estienne (1594), Prémices, etc, p. 47; "To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure", George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum.
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“My father was as proud of his eloquence as MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO could be for his life, and and for aught I am convinced of to the contrary at present, with as much reason: it was indeed his strength — and his weakness, too. — His strength — for he was by nature eloquent — and his weakness — for he was hourly a dupe to it; and provided an occasion in life would but permit him to shew his talents, or say either a wise thing, a witty, or a shrewd one — (bating the case of a systematic misfortune)— he had all he wanted.— A blessing which tied up my father's tongue, and a misfortune which let it loose with a good grace, were pretty equal: sometimes, indeed, the misfortune was the better of the two; for instance, where the pleasure of the harangue was as ten, and the pain of the misfortune was as five”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

my father gained half in half, and consequently was as well again off, as if it had never befallen him.
Book V, Ch. 3.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book VIII, Ch. 2.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Ho! 'tis the time of salads.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book VII, Ch. 17.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book II (1760), Ch. 3.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“I am convinced, Yorick, continued my father, half reading and half discoursing, that there is a Northwest Passage to the intellectual world; and that the soul of man has shorter ways of going to work, in furnishing itself with knowledge and instruction, than we generally take with it.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book V, Ch. 42.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, cried my uncle Toby, — but nothing to this. — For my own part, I could not have a heart to curse my dog so.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book III, Ch. 11.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Hail, ye small, sweet courtesies of life! for smooth do ye make the road of it.”

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Laurence Sterne livre A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

The Pulse, Paris.
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, 'Tis all barren!”

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Laurence Sterne livre A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

In the Street, Calais.
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, on holy-days, as well as working-days, to be showing the relics of learning, as monks do the relics of their saints — without working one — one single miracle with them?”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book V (1761-1762), Ch. 1.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause — and of obstinacy in a bad one.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I, Ch. 17.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them before he gets to Paris.”

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Laurence Sterne livre A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

Montreuil.
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“As for the clergy — No — If I say a word against them, I'll be shot. — I have no desire, — and besides, if I had, — I durst not for my soul touch upon the subject, — with such weak nerves and spirits, and in the condition I am in at present, 'twould be as much as my life was worth, to deject and contrist myself with so bad and melancholy an account, — and therefore, 'tis safer to draw a curtain across, and hasten from it, as fast as I can, to the main and principal point I have undertaken to clear up, — and that is, How it comes to pass, that your men of least wit are reported to be men of most judgment.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book III, Ch. 20.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Persuasion hung upon his lips, and the elements of Logick and Rhetorick were so blended up in him, — and, withall, he had so shrewd guess at the weaknesses and passions of his respondent, — that NATURE might have stood up and said, — "This man is eloquent."”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I, Ch. 19.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Only the brave know how to forgive…A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.”

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Laurence Sterne

Sermons, Vol. I, No. 12 (1760).

“Go poor Devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? — This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book II, Ch. 12 (Uncle Toby to the fly).
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Whistled up to London, upon a Tom Fool's errand.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I, Ch. 16.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“"Pray, my dear," quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?" — "Good G—!" cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time, — "Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?"”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I, Ch. 1.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“The history of a soldier's wound beguiles the pain of it.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book I, Ch. 25.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“It had ever been the custom of the family, and by length of time was almost become a matter of common right, that the eldest son of it should have free ingress, egress, and regress into foreign parts before marriage, — not only for the sake of bettering his own private parts, by the benefit of exercise and change of so much air — but simply for the mere delectation of his fancy, by the feather put into his cap, of having been abroad.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book IV, Ch. 31.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“When issues of events like these my father is waiting for, are hanging in the scales of fate, the mind has the advantage of changing the principle of expectation three times, without which it would not have power to see it out.Curiosity governs the first moment; and the second moment is all economy to justify the expense of the first — and for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth moments, and so on to the day of judgment — 'tis a point of HONOUR.I need not be told, that the ethic writers have assigned this all to Patience; but that VIRTUE, methinks, has extent of domination sufficient of her own, and enough to do in it, without invading the few dismantled castles which HONOUR has left him upon the earth.”

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Laurence Sterne livre Vie et opinions de Tristram Shandy

Book IX (1767), Ch. 10.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

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