Robert Burton > Quotes

“[T]hou canst not think worse of me than I do of myself.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“He that increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“What cannot be cured must be endured.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“I am not poor, I am not rich; nihil est, nihil deest, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower...I live still a collegiate student...and lead a monastic life, ipse mihi theatrum [sufficient entertainment to myself], sequestered from those tumults and troubles of the world...aulae vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo [I laugh to myself at the vanities of the court, the intrigues of public life], I laugh at all.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“That which others hear or read of, I felt and practised myself; they get their knowledge by books, I mine by melancholizing.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“If you like not my writing, go read something else.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“Melancholy can be overcome only by melancholy.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“A quiet mind cureth all. ”
― Robert Burton

“Every man for himself, the devil for all.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“[E]very man hath liberty to write, but few ability. Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers, that either write for vain-glory, need, to get money, or as Parasites to flatter and collogue with some great men, they put out trifles, rubbish and trash. Among so many thousand Authors you shall scarce find one by reading of whom you shall be any whit better, but rather much worse; by which he is rather infected than any way perfected…

What a catalogue of new books this year, all his age (I say) have our Frankfurt Marts, our domestic Marts, brought out. Twice a year we stretch out wits out and set them to sale; after great toil we attain nothing…What a glut of books! Who can read them? As already, we shall have a vast Chaos and confusion of Books, we are oppressed with them, our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part I am one of the number—one of the many—I do not deny it...”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“Let thy fortune be what it will, 'tis thy mind alone that makes thee poor or rich, miserable or happy.”
― Robert Burton

“What a glut of books! Who can read them?”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as [love] can do with a single thread.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“Be not solitary, be not idle”
― Robert Burton

“All Poets are mad.”
― Robert Burton

“Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are strong, but truth overcometh all things.”
― Robert Burton

“that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for want of good method; I have confusedly tumbled over divers authors in our libraries, with small profit, for want of art, order, memory, judgment.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“We love neither God nor our neighbor as we should. Our love in spiritual things is "too defective, in worldly things too excessive, there is a jar in both." We love the world too much; God too little; our neighbor not at all, or for our own ends.”
― Robert Burton

“When I lie waking all alone,
Recounting what I have ill done,
My thoughts on me then tyrannize,
Fear and sorrow me surprise,
Whether I tarry still or go,
Methinks the time moves very slow,
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so sad as melancholy.
'Tis my sole plague to be alone,
I am a beast, a monster grown,
I will no light nor company,
I find it now my misery.
The scene is turn'd, my joys are gone,
Fear, discontent, and sorrows come.
All my griefs to this are folly,
Naught so fierce as melancholy.”
― Robert Burton

“The eyes are the harbingers of love, and the first step of love is sight.”
― Robert Burton

“I light my candle from their torches.”
― Robert Burton

“Now go and brag of thy present happiness, whosoever thou art, brag of thy temperature, of thy good parts, insult, triumph, and boast; thou seest in what a brittle state thou art, how soon thou mayst be dejected, how many several ways, by bad diet, bad air, a small loss, a little sorrow or discontent, an ague, &c.; how many sudden accidents may procure thy ruin, what a small tenure of happiness thou hast in this life, how weak and silly a creature thou art.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“If heaven be so fair,the sun so fair, how much fairer shall He be that made them fair? For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures, proportionally the maker of them is seen.”
― Robert Burton

“If you have no dreams, you shall live within them”
― Robert Burton

“A good conscience is a continual feast, but a galled conscience is as great a torment as can possibly happen, a still baking oven (so Pierius in his Hieroglyph compares it), another hell.”
― Robert Burton

“One religion is as true as another.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“It is an old saying, "A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword"; and many men are as much galled with a calumny, a scurrile and bitter jest, a libel, a pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, stage-plays, or the like, as with any misfortune whatsoever.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“As a fat body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniences.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

“Riches do not so much exhilarate us with their possession, as they torment us with their loss.”
― Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy