Thomas Browne: Trending quotes

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Thomas Browne: 156 quotes1 like

“A little water makes a sea, a small puff of wind a Tempest.”

Thomas Browne

On Dreams

“I look upon you as a gem of the old rock.”

Thomas Browne book Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial

Dedication
Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658)

“Art is the perfection of nature.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 16
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“In the deep discovery of the Subterranean world, a shallow part would satisfy some enquirers.”

Thomas Browne book Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial

Source: Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658), Chapter I

“When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.”

Thomas Browne

Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 5, Ch. 22, sect. 6

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

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 11
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“But the Quincunx of Heaven runs low, and 'tis time to close the five ports of knowledge. We are unwilling to spin out our awaking thoughts into the phantasmes of sleep, which often continueth præcogitations; making Cables of Cobwebbes and Wildernesses of handsome Groves. Beside Hippocrates hath spoke so little and the Oneirocriticall Masters, have left such frigid Interpretations from plants, that there is little encouragement to dream of Paradise it self. Nor will the sweetest delight of Gardens afford much comfort in sleep; wherein the dulnesse of that sense shakes hands with delectable odours; and though in the Bed of Cleopatra, can hardly with any delight raise up the ghost of a Rose.”

Thomas Browne book The Garden of Cyrus

Source: The Garden of Cyrus (1658), Ch. 5

“The noblest Digladiation is in the Theatre of ourselves.”

Thomas Browne book Christian Morals

Part I, Section XXIV
Christian Morals (first pub. post. 1716)

“They that endeavour to abolish vice destroy also virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another, are yet the life of one another.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 4
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“There is surely a Physiognomy, which those experienced and Master Mendicants observe… For there are mystically in our faces certain Characters that carry in them the motto of our Souls, wherein he that cannot read A. B. C. may read our natures.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 2
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar act of coition; It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there anything that will more deject his cooled imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 9
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“Obstinacy in a bad cause, is but constancy in a good.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 25
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“Time which antiquates Antiquities, and hath an art to make dust of all things.”

Thomas Browne book Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial

Source: Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658), Chapter V

“Be charitable before Wealth makes thee covetous.”

Thomas Browne

Letter to a Friend (circa 1656)

“He who discommendeth others obliquely commendeth himself.”

Thomas Browne book Christian Morals

Part I, Section XXXIV
Christian Morals (first pub. post. 1716)

“We term sleep a death, and yet it is waking that kills us, and destroys those spirits that are the house of life.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 12
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“That children dream not the first half year, that men dream not in some countries, with many more, are unto me sick men's dreams, dreams out of the Ivory gate, and visions before midnight.”

Thomas Browne

On Dreams

“I am not so much afraid of death, as ashamed thereof; 'tis the very disgrace and ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us that our nearest friends, Wife, and Children stand afraid and start at us.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 40
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

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

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 12
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“I am in no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and galliardize of company, yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 11
Religio Medici (1643), Part II