Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Robert Burton (English Scholar, Clergyman)

Robert Burton (1577–1640) was an English scholar, writer, and Anglican clergyman. His Anatomy of Melancholy is a masterpiece of style and a valuable index to the science of his time, mixed with astrology, meteorology, psychology, theology, and rich, old-fashioned kidology.

Born in Lindley, Leicestershire, Burton was educated at Brasenose College-Oxford, and in 1599 was elected a student of Christ Church and earned a bachelor of divinity in 1614. He worked as the vicar of St Thomas the Martyr’s Church-Oxford, in 1616 and at the rectory of Segrave, Leicestershire, since 1630. He kept both livings but spent his life at Christ Church, where he died.

Burton’s first work was the Latin comedy Philosophaster (1606; edited with an English translation by P. Jordan-Smith, 1931,) a vivacious exposure of charlatanism that has affinities with Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. It was acted at Christ Church in 1618.

The first edition of Burton’s masterpiece, Anatomy of Melancholy, was written under the pseudonym ‘Democritus Junior,’ and appeared in quarto in 1621 (final, sixth edition, 1651–52.) This strange book is a vast and witty compendium of Jacobean knowledge about the ‘disease’ of melancholy, its causes, and the symptoms. It was gathered from classical and medieval writers, as well as folklore and superstition. One of the most exciting parts is the long preface, ‘Democritus to the Reader,’ in which Burton indirectly accounts for himself and his studies.

The Anatomy was widely read in the 17th century, but it lapsed into obscurity for a while. In the 18th century, Samuel Johnson admired it, and Laurence Sterne borrowed from it. In the 19th century, the devotion of Charles Lamb helped to bring the Anatomy into favor with the Romantics and inspired intellectuals from John Keats to Cy Twombly. The standard modern edition is the edition The Anatomy of Melancholy (6 vol., 1989–2000.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert Burton

Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Patience, Hope, Aspirations, Difficulty

If there is a hell upon earth it is to be found in a melancholy man’s heart.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Sorrow

Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Evil

Our wrangling lawyers… are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients’ causes hereafter,—some of them in hell.
—Robert Burton

Idleness is an appendix to nobility.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Laziness, One liners, Idleness

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Support

One was never married. and that’s his hell; another is, and that’s his plague.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Marriage

One religion is as true as another.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Religion

Out of too much learning become mad.
—Robert Burton

They lard their lean books with the fat of others’ works.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Plagiarism, Writing

The attachments of mere mirth are but the shadows of that true friendship of which the sincere affections of the heart are the substance.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Friendship

The devil is the author of confusion.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Evil

Who cannot give good counsel? ‘Tis cheap, it costs them nothing.
—Robert Burton

Seneca thinks the gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity.
—Robert Burton

Call a spade a spade.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Names

Every other sin hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of an excuse; envy alone wants both. Other sins last but for awhile; the gut may be satisfied, anger remits, hatred hath an end, envy never ceaseth.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Jealousy, Love

Comparisons are odious.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Comparisons

I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Wine

There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Idleness

The pen worse than the sword.
—Robert Burton

Humor purges the blood, making the body young, lively, and fit for any manner of employment.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Humor

The greatest provocations of lust are from our apparel.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Desires

Birds of a feather will gather together.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Birds

Build castles in the air.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Imagination

What can’t be cured must be endured.
—Robert Burton

He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay.
—Robert Burton
Topics: One liners

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.
—Robert Burton

Seem not greater than thou art.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Greatness

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

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.
—Robert Burton
Topics: Words, Weapon

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *