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Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living: All things fall under this name. The Sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, and the light but the shadow of God.

— Thomas Browne The Garden of Cyrus (1658)

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More quotes by Thomas Browne

There is no man alone, because every man is a Microcosm, and carries the whole world about him.

Religio Medici (1643)

There is surely a piece of Divinity within us, something that was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.

Religio Medici (1643)

The severe Schools shall never laugh me out of the Philosophy of Hermes, that this visible world is but a picture of the invisible.

Religio Medici (1643)

No man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another.

Religio Medici (1643)

What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.

Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658)

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Attribution

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