Laurence Sterne

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

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

He was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip forever.

For every ten jokes, thou hast got a hundred enemies.

So long as a man rides his hobbyhorse 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?

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

"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, …

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.

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