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Quotes from Last Essays of Elia — Charles Lamb

1775–1834 England

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14 quotes

How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man's self to himself!

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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 ...

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

Books which are no books.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

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.

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

When I am not walking, I am reading

Last Essays of Elia (1833)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Lamb (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.