How we cite our quotes:
Quote #4
"stop!—go not one foot further into this thorny and bewildered track;--intricate are the steps! intricate are the mazes of this labyrinth! intricate are the troubles which the pursuit of this bewitching phantom KNOWLEDGE will bring upon thee." (2.3.8)
Knowledge is deceitful. It's great to have a little, but too much leads people on and eventually ends up confusing them. It seems like Tristram is suggesting it's better not to know too much—exactly the opposite stance taken by Sterne's contemporary, Alexander Pope: "A little learning is a dangerous thing/ Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
Quote #5
The advantage of prying and peeping continually into his master's plans, &c., exclusive and besides what he gained HOBBY-HORSICALLY, as a body servant, Non Hobby-Horsical per se,—had become no mean proficient in the science; and was thought, by the cook and chamber-maid, to know as much of the nature of strongholds as my uncle Toby himself. (2.5.8)
Spying: a time-honored way of gathering knowledge. We see characters spy a few times in the novel (particularly Mrs. Shandy), and here we learn than Trim has a super high security clearance. The problem is that knowledge you get from spying is, well, incomplete. The cook and the chamber-maid probably aren't the best judges of how much Trim knows about fortifications.
Quote #6
I should have added, nor are we angels, I wish we were,—but men clothed with bodies, and governed by our imaginations;—and what a junketing piece of work of it there is, betwixt these and our seven senses, (5.7.10)
In the seventeenth century, John Locke insisted that the best way to learn about the world was through the senses. Not so, Tristram says, who would no doubt throw out all eyewitness testimony.