Thomas Browne Quotes

Light is the shadow of God.

Many-have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.

I had rather stand the shock of a basilisk than the fury of a merciless pen.

To be content with death may be better than to desire it.

If there be any among those common objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great enemy of reason, virtue, and religion, the multitude; that numerous piece of monstrosity, which, taken asunder, seem men, and the reasonable creatures of God, but, confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious than Hydra.

Be deaf unto the suggestions of tale-bearers, calumniators, pick-thank or malevolent detractors, who, while quiet men sleep, sowing the tares of discord and division, distract the tranquillity of charity and all friendly society. These are the tongues that set the world on fire--cankerers of reputation, and, like that of Jonah's gourd, wither a good name in a single night.

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 feather the arrows of our enemies, to lash ourselves with the scorpions of our foes, and to resolve to sleep no more.

Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.

They do most by Books, who could do much without them, and he that chiefly owes himself unto himself, is the substantial Man.

God hath varied the inclinations of men according to the variety of actions to be performed.

There is music wherever there is harmony, order and proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres; for those well ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony.

Grave-stones tell truth scarce forty years. Generations pass while families last not three oaks.

Study prophecies when they are become histories.

Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion.

I have tried if I could reach that great resolution . . . to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.

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

There is no royal road or ready way to virtue.

He is rich who hath enough to be charitable.

Where I cannot satisfy my reason, I love to humour my fancy.

We term sleep a death by which we may be literally said to die daily; in fine, so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers.

I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that we were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar way of coition; it is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.

Praise is a debt we owe unto the virtue of others, and due unto our own from all whom malice hath not made mutes, or envy struck dumb.

A man is never alone, not only because he is with himself and his own thoughts, but because he is with the Devil, who ever consorts with our solitude.

The religion of one seems madness unto another.

Forcible ways make not an end of evil, but leave hatred and malice behind them.

There is something in us that can be without us, and will be after us, though indeed it hath no history of what it was before us, and cannot tell how it entered into us.

Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude.

Rich with the spoils of nature.

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

Affection should not be too sharp eyed, and love is not made by magnifying glasses.

The man without a navel still lives in me.

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.

Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks.

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.

It is we that are blind, not fortune; because our eye is too dim to discern the mystery of her effects, we foolishly paint her blind, and hoodwink the providence of the Almighty.

Be Charitable before wealth make thee covetous, and loose not the glory of the Mite.

Sleep is death's younger brother, and so like him, that I never dare trust him without my prayers.

That some have never dreamed is as improbable as that some have never laughed.

To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.

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 Death, which no Man fears by Experience.

As reason is a rebel to faith, so passion is a rebel to reason.

Should your riches increase, let your mind keep pace with them.

Let any stranger find mee so pleasant a county, such good way, large heath, three such places as Norwich, Yar. and Lin. in any county of England, and I'll bee once again a vagabond to visit them.

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

The discourses of the table among true loving friends are held in strict silence.

There are wonders in true affection. It is a body of enigmas, mysteries, and riddles, wherein two so become one, as they both become two.

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

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