Gilbert Burnet Quotes

• Let us be adventurers for another world. It is at least a fair and noble chance; and there is nothing in this worth our thoughts or our passions. If we should be disappointed, we are still no worse than the rest of our fellow-mortals; and if we succeed in our expectations we are eternally happy.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Passion, Expectations, Succeed

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• One of the strangest catastrophes that is in any history. A great king, with strong armies and mighty fleets, a great treasure and powerful allies, fell all at once, and his whole strength, like a spider's web, was... irrecoverably broken at a touch.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Strong, Kings, Powerful

  Gilbert Burnet (1840). “Bishop Burnet's history of his own time”, p.397

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• There is no lasting pleasure but contemplation; all others grow flat and insipid upon frequent use; and when a man hath run through a set of vanities, in the declension of his age, he knows not what to do with himself, if he cannot think; he saunters about from one dull business to another, to wear out time; and hath no reason to value Life but because he is afraid of death.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Running, Men, Thinking

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• ...learning chiefly in mathematical sciences can so swallow up and fix one's thought, as to possess it entirely for some time; but when that amusement is over, nature will return, and be where it was, being rather diverted than overcome by such speculations.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Science, Overcoming, Amusement

  Gilbert Burnet (1745). “An Exposition of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England”, p.176

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• An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683), who, in speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense never tell it".

  Gilbert Burnet

  Men, People, Anecdotes

  "Burnet's history of my own time". Book by by Gilbert Burnet, vol. i, p. 175, 1833.

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• The law of England is the greatest grievance of the nation, very expensive and dilatory.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Law, England, Grievance

  Gilbert Burnet, Sir Thomas Burnet (1734). “Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time ...: From the revolution to the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht, in the reign of Queen Anne. To which is added, the author's life, by the editor”, p.658

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• The Duke of Buckingham gave me once a short but severe character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it was true: the King (he said) could see things if he would, and the Duke would see things if he could.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Brother, Kings, Character

  Gilbert Burnet (1809). “Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: From the Restoration of K. Charles II to the Conclusion of the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht, in the Reign of Queen Anne. To which is Prefixed, a Summary Recapitulation of Affairs in Church and State, from King James I. to the Restoration in the Year 1660. Together with the Author's Life and Some Explanatory Notes”, p.235

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• . . . for the most part the worst instructed, and the least knowing of any of their rank, I ever went amongst.

  Gilbert Burnet

  Knowing, Worst

  Gilbert Burnet (1734). “History of His Own Time: From the revolution to the conclusion of the treaty of peace at Utrecht, in the reign of Queen Anne : to which is added the author's life”, p.648

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