Antiquity! thou wondrous charm, what art thou? that being nothing art everything? When thou wert, thou wert not antiquity - then thou wert nothing, but hadst a remoter antiquity, as thou calledst it, to look back to with blind veneration; thou thyself being to thyself flat, jejune, modern! What mystery lurks in this retroversion? or what half Januses are we, that cannot look forward with the same idolatry with which we for ever revert! The mighty future is as nothing, being everything! the past is everything, being nothing!
Charles LambI own that I am disposed to say grace upon twenty other occasions in the course of the day besides my dinner. I want a form for setting out upon a pleasant walk, for a moonlight ramble, for a friendly meeting, or a solved problem. Why have we none for books, these spiritual repasts-a grace before Milton-a grace before Shakespeare-a devotional exercise proper to be said before reading The Fairie Queene?
Charles LambI give thee all,-I can no more, Though poor the off'ring be; My heart and lute are all the store That I can bring to thee.
Charles LambHe who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition.
Charles LambFrom 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.
Charles LambThe human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.
Charles LambWhen thus the heart is in a vein Of tender thought, the simplest strain Can touch it with peculiar power.
Charles LambAs down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
Charles LambWhy are we never quite at ease in the presence of a schoolmaster? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in ours. He is awkward, and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes like Gulliver from among his little people, and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.
Charles LambThe most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.
Charles LambMay be the truth is, that one pipe is wholesome, two pipes toothsome, three pipes noisome, four pipes fulsome, five pipes quarrelsome; and that's the some on't.
Charles LambThe greatest pleasure I know, is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
Charles LambWhat a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelments of lead and brass, its pert or solemn dullness of communication, compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart-language of the old sundials! It stood as the garden god of Christian gardens. Why is it almost everywhere vanished? If its business-use be superseded by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance.
Charles LambOf all sound of all bells... most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.
Charles LambThink what you would have been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history!
Charles LambThus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
Charles LambHere cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.
Charles LambNewspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever puts one down without the feeling of disappointment.
Charles LambWe gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself.
Charles LambScience has succeeded to poetry, no less in the little walks of children than with men. Is there no possibility of averting this sore evil?
Charles LambWhen true hearts lie wither'd And fond ones are flown, Oh, who would inhabit This bleak world alone?
Charles LambWho has not felt how sadly sweet The dream of home, the dream of home, Steals o'er the heart, too soon to fleet, When far o'er sea or land we roam?
Charles LambTake all the pleasures of all the spheres, And multiply each through endless years,- One minute of heaven is worth them all.
Charles LambThe 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.
Charles LambThe trumpet does not more stun you by its loudness, than a whisper teases you by its provoking inaudibility.
Charles LambWe are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence, and a name.
Charles LambI am accounted by some people as a good man. How cheap that character is acquired! Pay your debts, don't borrow money, nor twist your kitten's neck off, nor disturb a congregation, etc., your business is done. I know things of myself, which would make every friend I have fly me as a plague patient.
Charles Lamb