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.

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 …

Sunday itself—that unfortunate failure of a holyday as it too often proved, what with my sense of its fugitiveness, and over-care to get the greatest quantity of pleasure out of it ...

Each day used to be individually felt by me in its reference to the foreign post days; in its distance from, or propinquity to, the next Sunday. I had my Wednesday feelings, my Saturday nights' sensations.

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.

The good things of life are not to be had singly, but come to us with a mixture.

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 …

A pun is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.

How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! he is his own exclusive object. Supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty.

Books which are no books.

Things in books' clothing.

When I am not walking, I am reading;

I love to lose myself in other men's minds.

A poor relation—is the most irrelevant thing in nature.

It argues an insensibility.

Presents, I often say, endear absents.

Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.

It is good to love the unknown.

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

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

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

Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune.

A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigor of the game.