Charles Lamb quotes - page 2

Books which are no books. (Charles Lamb)
Presents, I often say, endear absents. View quote
Charles Lamb
He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society. View quote
Charles Lamb
Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it. View quote
Charles Lamb
Riddle of destiny, who can show; What thy short visit meant, or know; What thy errand here below. View quote
Charles Lamb
Borrowers of books -- those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes. View quote
Charles Lamb
Who first invented work, and bound the free And holiday-rejoicing spirit down . . . . . . . . . To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? . . . . . . . . . Sabbath-less Satan! View quote
Charles Lamb
Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony but organically I am incapable of a tune. View quote
Charles Lamb
I like you and your book, ingenious Hone In whose capacious all-embracing leaves The very marrow of tradition 's shown And all that history, much that fiction weaves. View quote
Charles Lamb
A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game. View quote
Charles Lamb
Martin, if dirt was trumps, what hands you would hold. (Charles Lamb)
Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door. View quote
Charles Lamb
The pilasters reaching down were adorned with a glistering substance (I know not what) under glass (as it seemed), resembling a homely fancy, but I judged it to be sugar-candy yet to my raised imagination, divested of its homelier qualities, it appeared a glorified candy. View quote
Charles Lamb
Separate from the pleasure of your company, I don't much care if I never see another mountain in my life. View quote
Charles Lamb
Nothing puzzles me more than time and space and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never think about them. View quote
Charles Lamb
This very night I am going to leave off tobacco! Surely there must be some other world in which this unconquerable purpose shall be realised. View quote
Charles Lamb
For God's sake (I never was more serious), don't make me ridiculous any more by terming me gentle-hearted in print. View quote
Charles Lamb
A presentation copy...is a copy of a book whoch does not sell, sent you by the author, with his foolish autograph at the beginning of it; for which, if a stranger, he only demands your friendship; if a brother author, he expects from you a book of yours, which does not sell, in return. View quote
Charles Lamb
Let us live for the beauty of our own reality. View quote
Charles Lamb
Cultivate simplicity or rather should I say banish elaborateness, for simplicity springs spontaneous from the heart. View quote
Charles Lamb
I conceive disgust at those impertinent and misbecoming familiarities, inscribed upon your ordinary tombstones. Every dead man must take upon himself to be lecturing me with his odious truism, that "such as he now is, I must shortly be." Not so shortly, friend, perhaps, as thou imaginest. In the meantime I am alive. I move about. I am worth twenty of thee. Know thy betters! (Charles Lamb)
From a poor man, poor in Time, I was suddenly lifted up into a vast revenue; I could see no end of my possessions; I wanted some steward, or judicious bailiff, to manage my estates in Time for me. View quote
Charles Lamb
A man can never have too much Time to himself, nor too little to do. Had I a little son, I would christen him Nothing-To-Do; he should do nothing. Man, I verily believe, is out of his element as long as he is operative. I am altogether for the life contemplative. View quote
Charles Lamb
A poor relation-is the most irrelevant thing in nature. View quote
Charles Lamb
I have done all that I came into this world to do. I have worked task work, and have the rest of the day to myself. View quote
Charles Lamb