Richard Francis Burton Quotes

• Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Civilization, man feels once more happy.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Nature, Travel, Journey

  "How to Explore Like a Real Victorian Adventurer". www.believermag.com. October 2011.

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• Broke is a temporary condition, poor is a state of mind.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Money, Mind, Wealth

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• The dearest ambition of a slave is not liberty, but to have a slave of his own.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Ambition, Atheism, Liberty

  Richard Francis Burton, John Payne, Andrew Lang, Jonathan Scott (2015). “One Thousand and One Nights - Complete Arabian Nights Collection (Delphi Classics)”, p.5890, Delphi Classics

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• Of the gladdest moments in human life...is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Inspirational, Travel, Journey

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• The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Death, Religious, Atheist

  "The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night". Book by John Payne, Terminal Essay: Social Conditions, fn. 13., 1885.

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• Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause. He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Life, Men, Self

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1880). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• Cease, man, to mourn, to weep, to wail;
  Enjoy thy shining hour of sun;
  We dance along Death's icy brink,
  But is the dance less full of fun?

  Richard Francis Burton

  Fun, Men, Shining

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1880). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• If you can’t laugh together in bed, the chances are you are incompatible, anyway. I’d rather hear a girl laugh well than try to turn me on with long, silent, soulful, secret looks. If you can laugh with a woman, everything else falls into place.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Girl, Fall, Long

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• All faith is false, all faith is true. Truth is the shattered mirror strown in myriad bits, while each believes his little bit the whole to own.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Faith, Believe, Mirrors

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1894). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû Al-Yazdi: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• One cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Islands, Sea, Wings

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1863). “Wanderings in West Africa from Liverpool to Fernando Po”, p.65

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• All so-called revealed religions consist mainly of three portions, a cosmogony more or less mythical, a history more or less falsified, and a moral code more or less pure.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Three, Moral, Portions

  Sir Richard Francis Burton “A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights' entertainments, now entituled The book of the thousand nights and a night”

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• Home is where the books are

  Richard Francis Burton

  Book, Home

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• I'd like to be born the son of a duke with 90,000 pounds a year, on an enormous estate.... And I'd like to have the most enormous library, and I'd like to think that I could read those books forever and forever, and die unlamented, unknown, unsung, unhonored - and packed with information.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Book, Son, Thinking

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• How melancholy a thing is success. Whilst failure inspirits a man, attainment reads the sad prosy lesson that all our glories "Are shadows, not substantial things." Truly said the sayer, "disappointment is the salt of life" a salutary bitter which strengthens the mind for fresh exertion, and gives a double value to the prize.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Disappointment, Giving, Mind

  Sir Richard Francis Burton, John Hanning Speke, William C. Barker (1856). “First Footsteps in East Africa: Or, An Exploration of Harar”, p.364

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• Conquer thyself, till thou has done this, thou art but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjected to another's appetite as to thine own.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Art, Past, Done

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• Friends of my youth, a last adieu! haply some day we meet again;
  Yet ne'er the self-same men shall meet; the years shall make us other men.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Men, Self, Years

  "The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî". Poem by Richard Francis Burton, 1870.

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• Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Knowledge, Knows

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1894). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû Al-Yazdi: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• For each believes his glimm'ering lamp to be the gorgeous light of day.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Believe, Light, Lamps

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1894). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû Al-Yazdi: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• Do what thy manhood bids thee do.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Thee, Manhood

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1894). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû Al-Yazdi: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• Reason is Life's sole arbiter, themagic Laby'rinth's single clue.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Life, Clue, Reason

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1880). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• The Now, that indivisible point which studs the length of infinite line Whose ends are nowhere, is thine all , the puny all thou callest thine.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Lines, Infinite, Length

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1894). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû Al-Yazdi: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• Travellers, like poets, are mostly an angry race: by falling into a daily fit of passion, I proved to the governor and his son, who were profuse in their attentions, that I was in earnest.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Fall, Passion, Son

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• The men were wild as ourang-outans, and the women fit only to flog cattle.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Men, Fit, He Man

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• [Shahrazad] had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Wise, Witty, Art

  Richard Francis Burton, John Payne, Andrew Lang, Jonathan Scott (2015). “One Thousand and One Nights - Complete Arabian Nights Collection (Delphi Classics)”, p.4187, Delphi Classics

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• When doctors differ who decides amid the milliard-headed throng?

  Richard Francis Burton

  Doctors

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1896). “The kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû el-Yezdî [pseud.]”

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