Thomas Browne Quotes - Page 7

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• Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line ure hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is the Art of God.

  Thomas Browne

  Art, Nature, Animal

  Religio Medici pt. 1, sec. 16 (1643)

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• Be substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others.

  Thomas Browne

  Thyself

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.141

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• 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 itself is but the dark simulacrum, and the light but the shadow of God.

  Thomas Browne

  Fall, Dark, Shadow Of Death

  'The Garden of Cyrus' (1658) ch. 4

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• He is like to be mistaken who makes choice of a covetous man for a friend, or relieth upon the reed of narrow and poltroon friendship. Pitiful things are only to be found in the cottages of such breasts; but bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty and generous honesty are the gems of noble minds, wherein (to derogate from none) the true, heroic English gentleman hath no peer.

  Thomas Browne

  Honesty, Men, Choices

  Sir Thomas Browne (1835). “Sir Thomas Browne's Works: Repertorium. A letter to a friend. Christian morals. Certain miscellany tracts. Unpublished papers”, p.79

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• Were the happiness of the next world is as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.

  Thomas Browne

  Happiness, World, Next

  'Hydriotaphia' (Urn Burial, 1658) ch. 4

  8 Copy quote

• The mortalist enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution unto truth, has been a preemptory adhesion unto authority.

  Thomas Browne

  Fear, Enemy, Done

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• Had not almost every man suffered by the Press, or were not the tyranny thereof become universal, I had not wanted reason for complaint.

  Thomas Browne

  Men, Suffering, Reason

  Sir Thomas Browne (1852). “Pseudodoxia epidemica, books V-VII. Religio medici. The garden of Cyprus”, p.315

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• I cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly; they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express the actions of their inward forms.

  Thomas Browne

  Beauty, Elephants, Bears

  Sir Thomas Browne, James Thomas Fields (1862). “Religio Medici: A Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, Urn-burial, and Other Papers”, p.35

  7 Copy quote

• Things evidently false are not only printed, but many things of truth most falsely set forth.

  Thomas Browne

  Publishing, Printed

  Sir Thomas Browne, James Thomas Fields (1862). “Religio Medici: A Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, Urn-burial, and Other Papers”, p.4

  4 Copy quote

• Gardens were before gardeners, and but some hours after the earth.

  Thomas Browne

  Garden, Earth, Hours

  Sir Thomas Browne (1835). “Pseudodoxia epidemica, books 4-7. The garden of Cyrus. Hydriotaphia. Brampton urns”, p.386

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• Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.

  Thomas Browne

  Men, Victory, Desire

  1634-5 Religio Medici (published 1643), pt.1, section 6.

  7 Copy quote

• He that unburied lies wants not his hearse, For unto him a tomb's the Universe.

  Thomas Browne

  Lying, Want, Graves

  Sir Thomas Browne (1841). “Religio Medici: To which is Added Hydriotaphia, Or Urn-burial; a Discourse on Sepulchral Urns”, p.79

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• But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity.

  Thomas Browne

  Memories, Men, Merit

  'Hydriotaphia' (Urn Burial, 1658) ch. 5

  7 Copy quote

• Study prophecies when they are become histories.

  Thomas Browne

  Study, Prophecy

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.180

  4 Copy quote

• Content may dwell in all stations. To be low but above contempt may be high enough to be happy.

  Thomas Browne

  May, Enough, Lows

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.147

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• The service of love is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there anything that will more deject his cool'd imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed.

  Thomas Browne

  Wise, Love Is, Men

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• I am in no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and galliardize of company, yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof.

  Thomas Browne

  Dream, Laughing, Way

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.121

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• That miracles have been, I do believe; that they may yet be wrought by the living, I do not deny: but have no confidence in those which are fathered on the dead.

  Thomas Browne

  Life, Believe, Miracle

  "Sir Thomas Browne's Works: Including His Life and Correspondence".

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• To make an end of all things on Earth, and our Planetical System of the World, he (God) need but put out the Sun.

  Thomas Browne

  Needs, World, Earth

  Letter to a Friend, circa 1656.

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• He who must needs have company, must needs have sometimes bad company.

  Thomas Browne

  Needs, Sometimes, Bad Company

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.176

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• Now with my friend I desire not to share or participate, but to engross his sorrows, that, by making them mine own, I may more easily discuss them; for in mine own reason, and within myself, I can command that which I cannot entreat without myself, and within the circle of another.

  Thomas Browne

  Real, Circles, Sorrow

  Sir Thomas Browne (1835). “Sir Thomas Browne's Works: Including His Life and Correspondence”, p.97

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• I can cure the gout or stone in some, sooner than Divinity, Pride, or Avarice in others.

  Thomas Browne

  Pride, Gout, Divinity

  Sir Thomas Browne, James Thomas Fields (1862). “Religio Medici: A Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, Urn-burial, and Other Papers”, p.141

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• The man without a navel still lives in me.

  Thomas Browne

  Men, He Man, Navel

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• There is no such thing as solitude, nor anything that can be said to be alone and by itself but God, who is His own circle, and can subsist by Himself.

  Thomas Browne

  Circles, Solitude, Said

  Sir Thomas Browne (1852). “Pseudodoxia epidemica, books V-VII. Religio medici. The garden of Cyprus”, p.443

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• Quotation mistakes, inadvertency, expedition, and human lapses, may make not only moles but warts in learned authors.

  Thomas Browne

  Mistake, Moles, Lapses

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici [and] Its Sequel Christian Morals”, p.155

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