The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

When the precipitancy of a man's wishes hurries on his ideas ninety times faster than the vehicle he rides in -- woe be to truth! and woe be to the vehicle and its tackling (let 'em be made of what stuff you will) upon which he breathes forth the disappointment of his soul!

As I never give general characters either of men or things in choler, "the most haste the worst speed," was all the reflection I made upon the affair, the first time it happen'd; -- the second, third, fourth, and fifth time, I confined it respectively to those times, and accordingly blamed only the second, third, fourth, and fifth post-boy for it, without carrying my reflections further; but the event continuing to befall me from the fifth, to the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth time, and without one exception, I then could not avoid making a national reflection of it, which I do in these words;