Quotes from Charles Lamb

Shakespeare is one of the last books one should like to give up, perhaps the one just before the Dying Service in a large Prayer book.

I am determined that my children shall be brought up in their father's religion, if they can find out what it is.

I have been trying all my life to like Scotchmen, and am obliged to desist from the experiment in despair.

He might have proved a useful adjunct if not an ornament to society.

Pain is life - the sharper, the more evidence of life.

He is no lawyer who cannot take two sides.

Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.

O money, money, how blindly thou hast been worshipped, and how stupidly abused! Thou are health and liberty and strength, and he that has thee may rattle his pockets at the foul fiend!

Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door.

My theory is to enjoy life, but my practice is against it.

The red-letter days, now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days.

Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever puts one down without the feeling of disappointment.

The good things of life are not to be had singly, but come to us with a mixture; like a school-boy's holiday, with a task affixed to the tail of it.

My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.

A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it.

To be thankful for what we grasp exceeding our proportion is to add hypocrisy to injustice.

Gluttony and surfeiting are no proper occasions for thanksgiving.

We grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair.

Boys are capital fellows in their own way, among their mates; but they are unwholesome companions for grown people.

Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never think about them.

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.

If thou would'st have me sing and play As once I play'd and sung, First take this time-worn lute away, And bring one freshly strung.

Time partially reconciles us to anything. I gradually became content--doggedly contented, as wild animals in cages.