Thomas Browne: Quotes about death

Thomas Browne was English polymath. Explore interesting quotes on death.

Thomas Browne: 156 quotes1 like

“This reasonable moderator, and equal piece of justice, Death.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 38
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 9
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“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 book The Garden of Cyrus

Source: The Garden of Cyrus (1658), Ch. 4

“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

“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

“Half our days we pass in the shadow of the earth; and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives.”

On Dreams

“Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 44
Compare: "I know death hath ten thousand several doors / For men to take their exits.", John Webster, Duchess of Malfi (1623); Act IV, scene ii.
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of Bravery, in the infamy of his nature. Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us.”

Thomas Browne book Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial

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

“We vainly accuse the fury of guns, and the new inventions of death; it is in the power of every hand to destroy us, and we are beholden unto every one we meet he doth not kill us.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 44
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“Not to be content with Life is the unsatisfactory state of those which destroy themselves; who being afraid to live, run blindly upon their own Death, which no Man fears by Experience.”

Letter to a Friend (circa 1656)

“Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
By sleeping what it is to die,
And as gently lay my head
On my grave as now my bed.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 12
Religio Medici (1643), Part II