Quotes from book
Religio Medici

Thomas Browne

Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne is a spiritual testament and early psychological self-portrait. Published in 1643 after an unauthorized version was distributed the previous year, it became a European best-seller which brought its author fame at home and abroad.

“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

“All things are artificial, for nature is the Art of God.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 16
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

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

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 10
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“There is no road or ready way to virtue.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 55
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“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

“The world that I regard is my selfe, it is the Microcosme of mine owne frame, that I cast mine eye on; for the other, I use it but like my Globe, and turne it round sometimes for my recreation. Men that look upon my outside, perusing onely my condition, and fortunes, do erre in my altitude; for I am above Atlas his shoulders.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 12
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 25
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“For the world, I count it not an Inn, but a Hospital, and a place, not to live, but to die in.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 11
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“We carry with us the wonders, we seek without us: There is all Africa, and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies, wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 15
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“Rich with the spoils of Nature.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 8
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“I can look a whole day with delight upon a handsome picture, though it be but of a horse. It is my temper, & I like it the better, to affect all harmony, and sure there is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. For there is a music wherever there is a harmony, order or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 9
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

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

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 4
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“I love to lose myself in a mystery to pursue my reason to an O altitudo.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 9
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“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

“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

“I believe the world grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the ruins of its own principles.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 45
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“But how shall we expect charity towards others, when we are uncharitable to ourselves? Charity begins at home, is the voice of the world, yet is every man his greatest enemy, and as it were, his own executioner.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 4
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million of faces there should be none alike.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 2
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“How shall the dead arise, is no question of my faith; to believe only possibilities, is not faith, but mere philosophy.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 48
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

“A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 6
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

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