Robert Burton Quotes

• No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.

  Robert Burton

  Love, Dream, Umbilical Cord

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• A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.

  Robert Burton

  Motivational, Eye, Dwarves

  The Anatomy of Melancholy "Democritus Junior to the Reader" (1621 - 1651) See Bernard of Chartres 1; Coleridge 30; Isaac Newton 1

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• Let thy fortune be what it will, 'tis thy mind alone that makes thee poor or rich, miserable or happy.

  Robert Burton

  Mind, Miserable, Rich

  Robert Burton (1857). “The Anatomy of melancholy”, p.366

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• Be not solitary, be not idle

  Robert Burton

  Solitary, Idle

  The Anatomy of Melancholy pt. 3, sec. 4 (1621 - 1651) See Samuel Johnson 97

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• If you like not my writing, go read something else.

  Robert Burton

  Writing, Ifs

  Robert Burton (1859). “The anatomy of melancholy: what it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several cures of it. In three partitions ...”, p.42

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• The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.

  Robert Burton

  Inspirational, Confidence, Ambition

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• Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small offenses.

  Robert Burton

  Friendship, Old Friends, Enemy

  Robert Burton (1924). “The Anatomy of Melancholy ... in Three Partitions with Their Several Sections, Members & Subsections, Philosopically, Medicinally & Subsections, Philosopically, Medicinally, Historically Opened & Cut Up by Democritus Junior (Robert Burton) with a Satirical Pref. Conducing to the Following Discourse”

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• Melancholy can be overcome only by melancholy.

  Robert Burton

  Overcoming, Melancholy

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• Worldly wealth is the Devil's bait; and those whose minds feed upon riches recede, in general, from real happiness, in proportion as their stores increase, as the moon, when she is fullest, is farthest from the sun.

  Robert Burton

  Real, Moon, Mind

  Robert Burton (1824). “The Anatomy of Melancholy,: In which the Kinds, Causes, Consequences, and Cures of this English Malady, ... are -- "traced from Within Its Inmost Centre to Its Outmost Skin."”, p.178

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• No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.

  Robert Burton

  Exception

  Robert Burton (1800). “The anatomy of melancholy: what it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostics, ... In three partitions. ... By Democritus junior. With a satyricall preface ... The ninth edition, corrected; to which is now first prefixed, an account of the author. ...”

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• They [i.e. ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so Budaeus compares them; they climb and climb still, with much labour, but never make an end, never at the top.

  Robert Burton

  Dog, Business, Ambition

  "The Anatomy of Melancholy". Book by Robert Burton, 1621.

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• What a glut of books! Who can read them?

  Robert Burton

  Book

  Robert Burton (1955). “The Anatomy of Melancholy: Now for the First Time with the Latin Completely Given in Translation and Embodied in an All-English Text”

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• [T]hou canst not think worse of me than I do of myself.

  Robert Burton

  Thinking, Self Loathing, Self Hatred

  Robert Burton (1800). “The Anatomy of Melancholy; what it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostics, and Several Cures of it: In Three Partitions with Their Several Sections, Members, and Sub-sections, Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically Opened and Cut Up”, p.12

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• We can make mayors and officers every year, but not scholars.

  Robert Burton

  Years, Mayors, Scholar

  Robert Burton, William H. Gass (2001). “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, NYRB Classics

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• To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.

  Robert Burton

  Love, Passion, Power

  The Anatomy of Melancholy pt. 3, sec. 2 (1621 - 1651)

  8 Copy quote

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