Clap an extinguisher upon your irony if you are unhappily blessed with a vein of it.
Interpretation
This quote advises against expressing irony when one is feeling unhappy, suggesting that it can be unhelpful or detrimental.
Charles Lamb's quote encourages individuals who possess a tendency towards irony, especially in times of unhappiness, to suppress that inclination. The underlying message is that irony can often mask or trivialize genuine emotions and experiences, particularly feelings of sorrow or discontent. By 'clapping an extinguisher' on one's irony, Lamb suggests that embracing authenticity and sincerity might be more beneficial during difficult emotional times.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, you can quote this to emphasize the importance of being genuine.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.
Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I 've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But 't was the first to fade away. I never nurs'd a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye, But when it came to know me well And love me, it was sure to die.
May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.
A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
Piglet was so excited at the idea of being Useful that he forgot to be frightened any more, and when Rabbit went on to say that Kangas were only Fierce during the winter months, being at other times of an Affectionate Disposition, he could hardly sit still, he was so eager to begin being useful at once.
One must train oneself, by small and frequent efforts, to dominate one's feelings.
What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
It is disgraceful to live at the cost of one's self-respect. Self-respect is the most vital factor in life. Without it, man is a cipher. To live worthily with self-respect, one has to overcome difficulties. It is out of hard and ceaseless struggle alone that one derives strength, confidence and recognition.
Child, that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. Oh, the fruit is good, but they loath it ever after.
We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.