Thomas Browne Quotes

140 quotes in 1392 categories

• Whosoever enjoys not this life, I count him but an apparition, though he wear about him the sensible affections of flesh. In these moral acceptions,… Affection
• I believe the world grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the ruins of its own principles. Believe
• I intend no Monopoly, but a Community in Learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves. Community
• We term sleep a death, and yet it is waking that kills us, and destroys those spirits that are the house of life. Death
• Half our days we pass in the shadow of the earth; and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives. Brother
• The heart of man is the place the devil dwells in; I feel sometimes a hell within myself. Devil
• They that endeavour to abolish vice destroy also virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another, are yet the life of one another. Abolish
• I can cure the gout or stone in some, sooner than Divinity, Pride, or Avarice in others. Avarice
• But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of… Animal
• Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living: All things fall under this name. The Sun… All
• To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history. Deeds
• There is no man alone, because every man is a Microcosm, and carries the whole world about him. Alone
• I love to lose myself in a mystery to pursue my reason to an O altitudo. Inspirational
• Not to be content with Life is the unsatisfactory state of those which destroy themselves; who being afraid to live, run blindly upon their own… Afraid
• Times before you, when even the living men were Antiquities; when the living might exceed the dead, and to depart this world, could not be… Antiquities
• A little water makes a sea, a small puff of wind a Tempest. Little
• The noblest Digladiation is in the Theatre of ourselves. Funny
• What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture. Achilles
• To ruminate upon evils, to make critical notes upon injuries, and be too acute in their apprehensions, is to add unto our own tortures, to… Acute
• The created World is but a small Parenthesis in Eternity. Created

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