Quotes from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, had minded what they were about when they begot me.

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;—they are the life, the soul of reading;—take them out of this book for instance,—you might as well take the book along with them.

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine — they are the life, the soul of reading.

Go,—says he, lifting up the sash... go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee?—This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

L—d! said my mother, what is all this story about?—A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick—And one of the best of its kind, I ever heard.

So long as a man rides his Hobby-Horse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him,—pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?

Pray, my dear, quoth my mother, have you not forgot to wind up the clock?

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!

Great wits jump.

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

A man cannot dress, but his ideas get clothed at the same time.

As we jogg on, either laugh with me, or at me, or in short do any thing,—only keep your temper.

To write a book is for all the world like humming a song—be but in tune with yourself, madam, 'tis no matter how high or how low you take it.

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