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.
The way that helps will not be the same; it changes according to the situation.
In the Universe the difficult things are done as if they were easy.
Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest man to do.
Suffering isn't ennobling, recovery is.
Don't feed the trolls; nothing fuels them so much.
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
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