Skip to content

We are the doubles of those whose way
Was festal with fruits and flowers;
Body and brain we were sound as they,
But the prizes were not ours.

— Robert Burton

Another quote →

Topics

Success

More quotes by Robert Burton

The Chinese say that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world else is blinde.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.

Anatomy of a Melancholy (1621)

Every man for himself, his own ends, the Devil for all.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

All Robert Burton quotes →

You may also like

We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Burton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.