The voices / 89 fragments

Charles Lamb

1775 AD — 1834 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Historical source references

Oxford in the Vacation
Mrs
A Chapter on Ears
The Old and New Schoolmaster
Valentine's Day
My First Play
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig
Detached Thoughts on Books
Amicus Redivivus
Hester
Old Familiar Faces
A Farewell to Tobacco
Written at Cambridge
Work
To the Editor of the Every-Day Book
Captain Starkey
Letter to Wordsworth, 1806
Lamb's Suppers
Autobiographical Recollections
Laughter · anthology attribution: Lamb
Printed citation: Lamb
Printed citation: Charles Lamb
Number 214 · printed citation: Lamb
Number 1519 · printed citation: Charles Lamb
Page 159 · printed citation: Charles Lamb (1775-1834) (Letter to S
Page 316 · printed citation: Charles Lamb (On an infant dying as soon as born)
Page 40 · printed citation: Charles Lamb · subject: ATHEISM
Page 249 · printed citation: Charles Lamb · subject: GIVING
Page 426 · printed citation: Charles Lamb · subject: PARDON
Page 510 · printed citation: Charles Lamb · subject: SABBATH

Archive entries

01c. 1804 AD

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

Charles Lamb / quote

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02c. 1804 AD

For with G. D., to be absent from the body is sometimes (not to speak profanely) to be present with the Lord.

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03c. 1804 AD

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

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04c. 1804 AD

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

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05c. 1804 AD

Not if I know myself at all.

Charles Lamb / quote

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06c. 1804 AD

It is good to love the unknown.

Charles Lamb / quote

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07c. 1804 AD

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.

Charles Lamb / quote

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08c. 1804 AD

Presents, I often say, endear absents.

Charles Lamb / quote

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09c. 1804 AD

It argues an insensibility.

Charles Lamb / quote

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10c. 1804 AD

Books which are no books.

Charles Lamb / quote

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11c. 1804 AD

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

Charles Lamb / quote

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12c. 1804 AD

Gone before To that unknown and silent shore.

Charles Lamb / quote

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13c. 1804 AD

I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days. All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

Charles Lamb / quote

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14c. 1804 AD

For thy sake, tobacco, I Would do anything but die.

Charles Lamb / quote

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15c. 1804 AD

And half had staggered that stout Stagirite.

Charles Lamb / quote

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16c. 1804 AD

Who first invented work, and bound the free And holiday-rejoicing spirit down . . . . . . To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? . . . . . . Sabbathless Satan!

Charles Lamb / quote

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17c. 1804 AD

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.

Charles Lamb / quote

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18c. 1804 AD

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

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19c. 1804 AD

Neat, not gaudy.

Charles Lamb / quote

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20c. 1804 AD

Martin, if dirt was trumps, what hands you would hold!

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21c. 1804 AD

Returning to town in the stage-coach, which was filled with Mr. Gilman's guests, we stopped for a minute or two at Kentish Town. A woman asked the coachman, "Are you full inside?" Upon which Lamb put his head through the window and said, "I am quite full inside; that last piece of pudding at Mr. Gilman's did the business for me."

Charles Lamb / quote

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22Undated

A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.

Charles Lamb / quote

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23Undated

A worn-out sinner is sometimes found to make the best declaimer against sin.

Charles Lamb / quote

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24Undated

In tale or history your beggar is ever the first antipode to your king.

Charles Lamb / quote

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Charles Lamb

Archive entries

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The Republic

The Prophet