Robert A. Burton

No one seriously doubts Socrates' maxim: The unexamined life isn't worth living. Self-assessment and attempts at self-improvement are essential aspects of "the…

— Robert A. Burton

“the brain has developed a constellation of mental sensations that feel like thoughts but aren’t.”

— Robert A. Burton

He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.

— Robert A. Burton

Out of too much learning become mad.

— Robert A. Burton

“Imagine how different dialogue might be with future generations raised on the idea that there are biological constraints on our ability to…

— Robert A. Burton

“How different the science-religion controversy would be if we acknowledged that a deeply felt sense of purpose is as necessary as hunger…

— Robert A. Burton

Good science requires distinguishing between "felt knowledge" and knowledge arising out of testable observations. "I am sure" is a mental sensation, not…

— Robert A. Burton

“Though not necessarily aware of when we feel purpose and meaning, we are nearly always aware of the sickening feeling when we…

— Robert A. Burton

Properly conducted scientific studies . . . give us a pretty good idea of when something is likely to be correct. To…

— Robert A. Burton

“If a conservationist has more stathmin, less risk-taking gene, and the pro-drilling advocate has less stathmin, more risk-taking gene, how can the…

— Robert A. Burton

“The history of science is the back-and-forth movement of trial-and-error advances and retreats, punctuated by moments of brilliance and marred by periods…

— Robert A. Burton

Our mental limitations prevent us from accepting our mental limitations.

— Robert A. Burton

“Dawkins conveniently illustrates the rationalist's dilemma: How do you articulate a personal sense of purpose when you intellectually have concluded that the…

— Robert A. Burton

Employment, which Galen calls 'Nature's Physician,' is so essential to human happiness that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.

— Robert A. Burton

“Compassion, empathy, and humility can only arise out of recognizing that our common desires are differently expressed.”

— Robert A. Burton

We want to be known for having original ideas, inspired hunches, and gut feelings that make a difference. Indeed, a "well-honed sixth…

— Robert A. Burton

Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and philosophers stones, a sovereign remedy to all…

— Robert A. Burton

Temperance is a bridle of gold; he, who uses it rightly, is more like a god than a man.

— Robert A. Burton

Certainty and similar states of ‘knowing what we know’ arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently…

— Robert A. Burton

Every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers end.

— Robert A. Burton

Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity.

— Robert A. Burton

Diseases crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, rivel them up like old apples, make them as…

— Robert A. Burton

Good science is more than the mechanics of research and experimentation. Good science requires that scientists look inward-to contemplate the origin of…

— Robert A. Burton

Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him, all his life long.

— Robert A. Burton

Naught so sweet as melancholy.

— Robert A. Burton