Quotes from Sir Thomas Browne

We carry with us the wonders we seek without us.

We carry within us the wonders we seek without us.

We all labor against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases

By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.

The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying

I make not therefore my head a grave, but a treasure, of knowledge; I intend no Monopoly, but a community, in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves.

Thus is Man that great and true Amphibium, whose nature is disposed to live, not onely like other creatures in divers elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds: for though there be but one to sense, there are two to reason, the one visible, the other invisible.

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

Be charitable before wealth makes thee covetous.

Art is the perfection of nature.

By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.

Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.

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 music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres

To believe only possibilities is not faith, but mere Philosophy.

The heart of man is the place the devil dwells in; I feel sometimes a hell dwells within myself.

Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.

It is a brave act to despise death; but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.

Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion.

I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that, from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself.

Forcible ways make not an end of evil, but leave hatred and malice behind them.

I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret Magic of numbers.

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

The created World is but a small Parenthesis in Eternity.

Be substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others.