Well known in philosophy and mathematics, the so-called paradox of Tristram Shandy was introduced by Bertrand Russell in his book The Principles of Mathematics to evidentiate the inner contradictions that arise from the assumption that infinite sets can have the same cardinality—as would be the case with a gentleman who spends one year to write the story of one day of his life, if he were able to write for an infinite length of time. The paradox depends upon the fact that "the number of days in all time is no greater than the number of years". Karl Popper, in contrast, came to the conclusion that Tristram Shandy—by writing his history of life—would never be able to finish this story, because his last act of writing: that he is writing his history of life could never be included in his actual writing.[40]
Heinrich Heine (1796–1856) mentioned the book in his writings. "The author of Tristram Shandy reveals to us the profoundest depths of the human soul; he opens, as it were, a crevice of the soul; permits us to take one glance into its abysses, into its paradise and into its filthiest recesses; then quickly lets the curtain fall over it. We have had a front view of that marvellous theatre, the soul; the arrangements of lights and the perspective have not failed in their effects, and while we imagined that we were gazing upon the infinite, our own hearts have been exalted with a sense of infinity and poetry."[41]
The curvy line from Volume IX, Chapter IV of Tristram Shandy is reprinted at the start of Balzac's novel La Peau de chagrin.[42]At the start of his novel La Peau de chagrin, Honoré de Balzac includes an image from Tristram Shandy: a curvy line drawn in the air by a character seeking to express the freedom enjoyed "whilst a man is free".[43] Balzac never explained his purpose behind the use of the symbol, and its significance to La Peau de chagrin is the subject of debate.
A historic site in Geneva, Ohio, called Shandy Hall, is part of the Western Reserve Historical Society. The home was named after the house described in Tristram Shandy.
In Anthony Trollope's novel Barchester Towers, the narrator speculates that the scheming clergyman, Mr Slope, is descended from Dr Slop in Tristram Shandy (the extra letter having been added for the sake of appearances). Slope is also called "Obadiah", a reference to another character in Sterne's novel.
Russian writer Alexander Zhitinsky made multiple references to Tristram Shandy in his novel The Flying House, or Conversations with Milord (the "milord" of the title being Sterne).
In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis refers to Tristram Shandy in the context of trying to describe his interactions with his own father:
My father—but these words, at the head of a paragraph, will carry the reader's mind inevitably to Tristram Shandy. On second thoughts I am content that they should. It is only in a Shandean spirit that my matter can be approached. I have to describe something as odd and whimsical as ever entered the brain of Sterne; and if I could, I would gladly lead you to the same affection for my father as you have for Tristram's.[44]
(The text of Tristram Shandy uses the phrase "my father" at the head of a paragraph fifty-one times.)
Christopher Morley, editor of The Saturday Review of Literature, wrote a preface to the Limited Editions Club issue of Sterne's classic. That preface appears in Morley's book Streamlines published by Doubleday, Doran, in 1932, and is titled "Tristram Shandy".
In the Hermann Hesse novel Journey to the East, Tristram Shandy is listed as one of the co-founders of The League.
A short story, Oh Most Cursed Addition Engine, by H. S. Donnelly, was published in the Canadian science fiction magazine On Spec #86. In it, Walter Shandy attempts to build an addition engine, while Toby and Corporal Trim re-enact in miniature Wellington's great victory at Vitoria.[45]
