Skip to content

Quotes from The Anatomy of Melancholy — Robert Burton

1577–1640 England

← All quotes by Robert Burton

110 quotes

[Desire] is a perpetual rack, or horsemill, according to Austin, still going round as in a ring.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

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

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

[The rich] are indeed rather possessed by their money than possessors.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

We can say nothing but what hath been said. Our poets steal from Homer... Our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

Make a virtue of necessity.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

Can build castles in the air.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

Be not solitary, be not idle.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

They do not live but linger.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

As he said in Machiavel, omnes eodem patre nati, Adam's sons, conceived all and born in sin, etc. "We are by nature all as one, all alike, if you see us naked; let us wear theirs and they our clothes, and what is the difference?"

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher's stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases...but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Burton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.