"We can say nothing but what hath been said. Our poets steal from Homer... Our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best."

Robert Burton English-language literature See all quotes by Robert Burton →

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

“Though it rain daggers with their points downward.”

“Seneca thinks the gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity.”

“Our conscience, which is a great ledger book, wherein are written all our offenses...grinds our souls with the remembrance of some precedent sins, makes us reflect upon, accuse and condemn ourselves.”

“The Chinese say that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world else is blinde.”

“Out of too much learning become mad.”

Resonant Thoughts

"However, there are all kinds of Writers. Some who know only one field themselves. Next those who know two or three fields in depth, and nothing more, and thirdly the majority who know a little about m…"

— Peter de Noronha

Religion1897–1970

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"There are strong parallels between the hope for salvation of the Jews and the hopes of the Indians who followed native prophets, between the early Christian martyrs and the Indian revolts against Unit…"

— Peter Farb

Science1929–1980

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"On July 4 1983, I met with officials of the Committee for the Reform of the Written Language in Peking. They informed me that they were working on another revision of their word list and that they wou…"

— Victor H. Mair

Literature1943

#writing

"I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do! Will you forget me — will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say, twenty years hence,…"

— Emily Brontë

Literature1818–1848

#death