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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.

— Laurence Sterne A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

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More quotes by Laurence Sterne

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

Every time a man smiles,—but much more so, when he laughs, that it adds something to this Fragment of life.

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

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760)

Friendship is the balm and cordial of life, and without it, ’tis a heavy load not worth sustaining.

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

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Laurence Sterne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.