Tristram Shandy Redux

I'm not trying to turn this blog into Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, or into "My Favorite Tristram Shandy Quotes"... but before I put the Randall Jefferson bio back on the shelf I thought I would copy out one more Shandy quote; one that Jefferson copied into his Literary Commonplace Book while a student at William and Mary. Being middle aged; it hits me right in the solar plexus:

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... 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...

Hold yourself accountable for the wasted hours.