How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
Sciences May Be Learned by Rote But Wisdom Not. (5.32.13)
Tristram contrasts science and wisdom: science is something you can memorize, but wisdom is something you have to understand. Tristram Shandy seems to be saying that they're opposed. Mr. Shandy knows a lot of science, but he doesn't have any wisdom at all; Toby is kind of a dunce, poor thing, but he knows a lot about human nature. (And the one science he does understand, fortifications, makes him foolish.)
Quote #8
The whole secret of health, said my father, beginning the sentence again, depending evidently upon the due contention betwixt the radical heat and radical moisture within us (5.36.1)
Mr. Shandy starts on about his theories of radical heat and moisture while young Tristram is upstairs wailing because he's just been brutally circumcised. We're sure it's a great comfort to Tristram to know that his father's learning is so helpful in times of crisis. Not.
Quote #9
Vain science! thou assistest us in no case of this kind—and thou puzzlest us in every one. (6.29.2)
Science, Tristram says, doesn't help anyone—it just throws people for a loop. He's said this a lot, by now, but the language here is worth noting. The archaic language ("thou," "assistest," "Vain science!") makes the sentence stand out, as if Tristram doesn't entirely mean it.