“Any thing awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.”
Letter to Southey (August 9, 1815)
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Charles Lamb 85
English essayist 1775–1834Related quotes
As quoted in "Some day my plinth will come" by Lynn Barber in The Guardian (27 May 2001) http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,497037,00.html
"Peter Laughner" (September/October 1977), p. 222
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1988)
“As we jogg on, either laugh with me, or at me, or in short do any thing—only keep your temper.”
Book I, Ch. 6 http://books.google.com/books?id=COoNAAAAQAAJ&q=%22as+we+jogg+on+either+laugh+with+me+or+at+me+or+in+short+do+any+thing+only+keep+your+temper%22&pg=PA19#v=onepage.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)
On Knowing what Gives us Pleasure, ii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIII - Unprofessional Sermons
Context: I should like to like Schumann’s music better than I do; I dare say I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all.
Source: The Laundry Files, The Fuller Memorandum (2010), Chapter 8, “Club Zero” (pp. 133-134)
“Familiarity with any great thing removes our awe of it.”
The Master Key (1901)
Context: Familiarity with any great thing removes our awe of it. The great general is only terrible to the enemy; the great poet is frequently scolded by his wife; the children of the great statesman clamber about his knees with perfect trust and impunity; the great actor who is called before the curtain by admiring audiences is often waylaid at the stage door by his creditors.
“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.”
Variant: I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land