Date: 1760-7

"That had said glass been there set up, nothing more would have been wanting, in order to have taken a man's character, but to have taken a chair and gone softly, as you would to a dioptrical bee-hive, and look'd in,--view'd the soul stark naked;--observ'd all her motions,--her machinations;--tra...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"The succession of his ideas was now rapid,--he broil'd with impatience to put his design in execution;--and so, without consulting further with any soul living,--which, by the bye, I think is right, when you are predetermined to take no one soul's advice,--he privately ordered Trim, his man, to ...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"What were his views in this, and in every other action of his life,--or rather what were the opinions which floated in the brains of other people concerning it, was a thought which too much floated in his own, and too often broke in upon his rest, when he should have been sound asleep."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho' I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of the manner of elect...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Trim ran down and brought up his Master's supper,--to no purpose:--Trim's plan of operation ran so in my uncle Toby's head, he could not taste it"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"But my father's mind took unfortunately a wrong turn in the investigation; running, like the hypercritic's, altogether upon the ringing of the bell and the rap upon the door,--measuring their distance,--and keeping his mind so intent upon the operation, as to have power to think of nothing else,...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"I was but ten years old when this happened;--but whether it was, that the action itself was more in unison to my nerves at that age of pity, which instantly set my whole frame into one vibration of most pleasurable sensation;--or how far the manner and expression of it might go towards it;--or i...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"You may conjecture upon it, if you please,--and whilst your imagination is in motion, you may encourage it to go on, and discover by what causes and effects in nature it could come to pass, that my uncle Toby got his modesty by the wound he received upon his groin."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"But the word siege, like a talismanic power,' in my father's metaphor, wafting back my uncle Toby's fancy, quick as a note could follow the touch,--he open'd his ears,--and my father observing that he took his pipe out of his mouth, and shuffled his chair nearer the table, as with a desire to pr...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Now it happened then, as indeed it had often done before, that my uncle Toby's fancy, during the time of my father's explanation of Prignitz to him,--having nothing to stay it there, had taken a short flight to the bowling-green;--his body might as well have taken a turn there too,--so that with...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)