Charles Lamb Quotes

It is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then like most cliches, that cliche is untrue.

cliches are truisms and all truisms are true

PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. A desiccated epigram.

The most irritating thing about cliches, I decided, was how frequently they were true.

Funny how people despise platitudes, when they are usually the truest thing going. A thing has to be pretty true before it gets to be a platitude.

All the words of wisdom sound the same.

A writer is not a prophet, is not a philosopher; he's just someone who is witness to what is around him. And so writing is a way to... it's the best way to testify, to be a witness.

One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.

The most important tool of my trade was a mirror.

I'll see something, and I'll go, 'Oh, wow, that's interesting,' because really, comedy comes from the truth.

They walked for a while, all silent in their thoughts, until they reached the car and Alec drew a fine telescope from his shirt and handed it to Milo. "Carry this with you on your journey," he said softly, "for there is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. Through it you can see everything from the tender moss in a sidewalk crack to the glow of the farthest star — and, most important of all, you can see things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. It's my gift to you.

You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.

I have always thought that by observing things with a great deal of attention you eventually wrest some of their secrets from them, making them utter what they would most like to keep to themselves.

I feel that one of the most important lessons that can be learned is that what we "see" may be different than what is actually in front of us.

Women always find you out when you lie. Always. No matter what, they always find out. They're like detectives.

What is important is not what you hear said, it's what you observe.

Seeing, looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life is all about.

I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

To see some truths you must stand outside and look in.

Sometimes you can learn things from the way a person denies something. The choice of lies can be almost as helpful as the truth.

Maybe it was the same with people: if you studied them,you'd see new and different things. But would you like what you saw? Did it depend on who was doing the looking?

Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower into a truth.

The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.

Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.

It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.