Robert Burton Quotes (121 Quotes)


    Christ himself was poor.... And as he was himself, so he informed his apostles and disciples, they were all poor, prophets poor, apostles poor.


    Were it not that they are loath to lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges.


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


    Agencies should encourage their acquisition professionals to limit the use of brand-name specifications and maximize competition.

    Our wrangling lawyers ... are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter, some of them in hell.


    Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices he had two distinct persons in him.

    Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel.

    Like sop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.

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

    Almost in every kingdom the most ancient families have been at first princes' bastards.

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

    Fabricius finds certain spots and clouds in the sun.


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

    Set a beggar on horseback and he will ride a gallop.

    The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.


    Homer himself must beg if he want means, and as by report sometimes he did 'go from door to door and sing ballads, with a company of boys about him.'

    I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people they go commonly together.

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




    Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.


    They are proud in their humility, proud that they are not proud.

    Felix Plater notes of some young physicians, that study to cure diseases, catch them themselves, will be sick, and appropriate all symptoms they find related of others to their own persons.

    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.


    No happiness is like unto it, no love so great as that of man and wife, no such comfort as a sweet wife.



    Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.

    Seneca thinks the gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity.

    Quoting Seneca Cornelia kept her in talk till her children came from school, 'and these,' said she, 'are my jewels.'

    What is life, when wanting love? Night without a morning; love's the cloudless summer sun, nature gay adorning.

    And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator.

    Like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth only keep it because it shall do nobody else good, hurting himself and others.

    They are proud in humility proud in that they are not proud.


    Like him in sop, he whipped his horses withal, and put his shoulder to the wheel.


    All my joys to this are folly, Naught so sweet as Melancholy.

    Every man for himself, his own ends, the Devil for all.

    A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich.

    Witches steal young children out of their cradles, ministerio dmonum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings.

    And hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard.


    More Robert Burton Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Hell - Man - Woman - Medicine & Medical - Madness - Money & Wealth - Vice & Virtue - Education - Happiness - Love - Devils - Sadness - Humility - Adversity - God - Idleness - Ambition - Place - Life - View All Robert Burton Quotations

    Related Authors


    Dale Carnegie - Thomas Kuhn - Robert Louis Stevenson - Milan Kundera - Joseph Addison - John Grisham - Ivo Andric - Edward Fairfax - Dr. Seuss - Bram Stoker


Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections