Laurence Sterne: For I begin with writing the first sentence,

A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.

Laurence Sterne

heart adventure life

Solitude is the best nurse of wisdom.

Laurence Sterne

loner solitude nurse

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

sorrow feelings joy

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

Laurence Sterne

pouring mixtures book

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other; and he that knows how to accommodate himself to their periodical returns, and can wisely extract the good from the evil, knows only how to live: this is true contentment, at least all that is to be had of it in this world; and for this every man must be indebted not to his fortune, but to himself.

Laurence Sterne

gratitude pain light

The cast, staff, and crew of a live theater work together toward a common goal: a good performance. Thus, theater is necessarily a group effort. However, it is never a group effort of vague fellow committee members, but of associated autocrats-a playwright, a producer, a director, a stage manager, designers, and, above all, actors. Each accommodates the others, and may overlap others in function when necessary. But each autocrat assumes distinct responsibilities and accepts them completely.

Laurence Sterne

effort goal responsibility

An interesting difference between new and experienced stage managers is that the new stage manager thinks of running the show as the most difficult and most demanding part of the job, whereas the experienced stage manager thinks of it as the most relaxing part. Perhaps the reason is that experienced stage managers have built up work habits that make then so thoroughly prepared for the production phase that they [can] sit back during performances to watch that preparation pay off.

Laurence Sterne

running jobs thinking

There is no definitive list of the duties of a stage manager that is applicable to all theaters and staging environments. Regardless of specific duties, however, the stage manager is the individual who accepts responsibility for the smooth running of rehearsals and performances, on stage and backstage.

Laurence Sterne

theatre responsibility running

The director is responsible for interpreting the playwright's work through the cast with the help of the staff. It is the director's artistic concept of the play that the cast, staff, and crew work to obtain.

Laurence Sterne

theatre play directors

You can't make theater happen without actors. The actor is the central ingredient in making theater happen. Audiences may come to theaters to see the work of stage managers, directors and producers, but the only people who can communicate theater magic to audiences, through ideas and emotions, are the actors. They are the only ones who can communicate this by themselves, and if necessary, they can get along without you. But you can't make theater without the actor.

Laurence Sterne

magic people ideas

There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman whilst she is making sausages.

Laurence Sterne

dating awkward work

It is sweet to feel by what fine spun threads our affections are drawn together.

Laurence Sterne

engagement together sweet

Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a bitter draught.

Laurence Sterne

bitterness slavery art

Human nature is the same in all professions.

Laurence Sterne

profession human-nature humans

Time wastes too fast : every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen ; the days and hours of it, more precious, my dear Jenny! than the rubies about thy neck, are flying over our heads like light clouds of a windy day, never to return more -- every thing presses on -- whilst thou are twisting that lock, -- see! it grows grey ; and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, and every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make!

Laurence Sterne

kissing light clouds

We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.

Laurence Sterne

force complaining sometimes

All womankind, from the highest to the lowest love jokes; the difficulty is to know how they choose to have them cut; and there is no knowing that, but by trying, as we do with our artillery in the field, by raising or letting down their breeches, till we hit the mark.

Laurence Sterne

cutting knowing love

The circumstances with which every thing in this world is begirt, give every thing in this world its size and shape;--and by tightening it, or relaxing it, this way or that, make the thing to be, what it is--great--little--good--bad--indifferent or not indifferent, just as the case happens.

Laurence Sterne

change giving life

There is a plain distinction to be made betwixt pleasure and happiness. For tho' there can be no happiness without pleasure--yet the converse of the proposition will not hold true.--We are so made, that from the common gratifications of our appetites, and the impressions of a thousand objects, we snatch the one, like a transient gleam, without being suffered to taste the other.

Laurence Sterne

gleam taste happiness

To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and wrong:MThe first of these will comprehend the duties of religion;Mthe second, those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together, that you cannot divide these two tableswithout breaking and mutually destroying them both.

Laurence Sterne

eye bible two

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