"The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies."

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

React to this quote

More by Robert Burton

“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

"In periods of frenzied haste toward wealth, of feverish speculation and of crisis, of the sudden downfall of great industries and the ephemeral expansion of other branches of production, of scandalous…"

— Peter Kropotkin

Philosophy1842–1921

#time

"I am myself of that somewhat flabby nature that always prefers agreement to disagreement...When the Labour Party sit on these benches, we shall all wish them well in their effort to govern the country…"

— Stanley Baldwin

Politics1867–1947

#time

"I shall never write an autobiography, I'm much too jealous of my privacy for that."

— Nadine Gordimer

Literature1923–2014

#writing

"On one side, your lordships have the prisoner declaring that the people have no laws, no rights, no usages, no distinctions of rank, no sense of honor, no property; in short that they are nothing but …"

— Edmund Burke

Philosophy1729–1797

#wisdom