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

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

"Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable . . . then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well."

— Marcus Aurelius

Philosophy

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"It was a small victory, for I had learned that I was in two wars, one against the foreign enemy, the other against prejudice at home."

— Jackie Robinson

Social Activism1919–1972

#knowledge

"After our country had been established, enlarged from sea to sea, and was dedicated to popular government, the next great task was to demonstrate the permanency of our Union and to extend the principl…"

— Calvin Coolidge

Politics1780–1853

#freedom

"The methodological advice to interpret in a way that optimizes agreement should not be conceived as resting on a charitable assumption about human intelligence that might turn out to be false. If we c…"

— Donald Davidson (philosopher)

Philosophy1917–2003

#philosophy