Quotes from book
The Anatomy of Melancholy

Name: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy is a book by Robert Burton, first published in 1621, but republished five more times over the next seventeen years with massive alterations and expansions.

“Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriæ, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3, subsection 14.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“And hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 1, member 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 2, subsection 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 3, member 1, subsection 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“Who cannot give good counsel? 'Tis cheap, it costs them nothing.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3, Air rectified. With a digression of the Air.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II

“Every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers' end.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 1, member 1, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“Going as if he trod upon eggs.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“Birds of a feather will gather together.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 1, member 1, subsection 2, Love's Beginning, Object, Definition, Division.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader

“As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 3, member 4, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“[Diseases] crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them so many anatomies.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3, subsection 10.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“We can make majors and officers every year, but not scholars.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3, subsection 15, Love of Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his "History of Scotland," contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread; it was objected to him, then living at Paris, that his countrymen fed on oats and base grain…. And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horse-meat, and fitter juments than men to feed on.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 2, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“Though it rain daggers with their points downward.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 4, subsection 7, A heap of other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death of Friends, Losses, etc.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

“Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small offenses.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader

“To these crocodile tears they will add sobs, fiery sighs, and sorrowful countenance.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 2, subsection 4.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

“Everything, saith Epictetus, hath two handles,—the one to be held by, the other not.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 3.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II

“Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader