"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."

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.”

“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.”

“And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator.”

Resonant Thoughts

"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

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"If I were a writer, how I would enjoy being told the novel is dead. How liberating to work in the margins, outside a central perception. You are the ghoul of literature. Lovely."

— Don DeLillo

Literature1936

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"Psychology is a more tricky field, in which even outstanding authorities have been known to run in circles, 'describing things which everyone knows in language which no one understands'."

— Raymond Cattell

Literature1905–1998

#knowledge

"Harry Rowohlt, the fellow who translated my book into German and is reading with me on my tour, told me that when someone on the bus or at a nearby table in a restaurant talks on a cell phone, he like…"

— David Sedaris

Entertainment1956

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