Robert Burton Quotes

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."

Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small offenses.

Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his "History of Scotland," contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread; it was objected to him, then living at Paris, that his countrymen fed on oats and base grain…. And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horse-meat, and fitter juments than men to feed on.

A good conscience is a continual feast.

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

Fabricius finds certain spots and clouds in the sun.

It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us.

They do not live but linger.

What can't be cured must be endured.

He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.

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

A nightingale dies for shame if another bird sings better.

Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriæ, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.

Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet. The pen worse than the sword.

[Diseases] crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them so many anatomies.