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Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.

— Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

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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)

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Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking
Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.

George Herbert The Temple (1633)

A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.

Horace Walpole

The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel– a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

Horace Walpole

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

Karl Barth The Harper Book of Quotations (1993)

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.