Meditações - esquecer de dar corda ao relógio

"Pray, my dear," quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?" — "Good G—!" cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time, — "Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?"

Laurence Sterne, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)