The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

[A pun] is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
‘Last Essays of Elia’ (1833) ‘Popular Fallacies’ no. 9
I have something more to do than feel.
On the death of his mother, at his sister Mary’s hands: letter to Coleridge, 1796, in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The
Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’
Cultivate simplicity, Coleridge.
Letter to S. T. Coleridge, 8 November 1796, in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’ vol. 1
(1975) p. 60
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street.
Letter to Thomas Manning, 15 February 1802 (quoting from ‘The Londoner’, no. 1), in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The
Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’ vol. 2 (1976) p. 57
Nursed amid her noise, her crowds, her beloved smoke—what have I been doing all my life, if
I have not lent out my heart with usury to such scenes?
On London in a letter to Thomas Manning, 15 February 1802 (quoting from ‘The Londoner’, no. 1), in E.
Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’ vol. 2 (1976) p. 58
Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never
think about them.
Letter to Thomas Manning, 2 January 1810, in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’ vol. 3
(1978) p. 36
Anything awful makes me laugh.
Letter to Robert Southey, 9 August 1815, in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’ vol. 3
(1978) p. 181
This very night I am going to leave off tobacco! Surely there must be some other world in
which this unconquerable purpose shall be realized.
Letter to Thomas Manning, 26 December 1815, in E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb’
vol. 3 (1978) p. 207
An Archangel a little damaged.
On Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth, 26 April 1816: E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and Mary
Lamb’ vol. 3 (1978) p. 215
The rogue gives you Love Powders, and then a strong horse drench to bring ’em off your
stomach that they mayn’t hurt you.
On Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth, 23 September 1816: E. Marrs (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles and
Mary Lamb’ vol. 3 (1978) p. 225
Fanny Kelly’s divine plain face.
Letter to Mary Wordsworth, 18 February 1818, in Henry H. Harper (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles
Lamb’ (1905) vol. 4, p. 105
Who first invented work—and tied the free
And holy-day rejoicing spirit down
To the ever-haunting importunity
Of business?
Letter to Bernard Barton, 11 September 1822, in Henry H. Harper (ed.) ‘The Letters of Charles Lamb’ (1905)
vol. 4, p. 189