Authors:

Robert Burton Quotes

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

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

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

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

Be not solitary, be not idle

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

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

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”

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 (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

No rule is so general, which admits not some 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. ...”

What a glut of books! Who can read them?

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”

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

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

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

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