Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Brownewas an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. Browne's writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffering from melancholia, his writings are also characterised by wit...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 October 1605
I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less.
I have tried if I could reach that great resolution . . . to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.
The religion of one seems madness unto another.
Women do most delight in revenge.
Since women do most delight in revenge, it may seem but feminine manhood to be vindictive.
Nor do they speak properly who say that time consumeth all things; for time is not effective, nor are bodies destroyed by it.
For my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are witches.
As for those wingy mysteries in divinity, and airy subtleties in religion, which have unhinged the brains of better heads, they never stretched the pia mater of mine; methinks there be not impossibilities enough in Religion for an active faith.
As sins proceed they ever multiply, and like figures in arithmetic, the last stands for more than all that wert before it.
There is no such thing as solitude, nor anything that can be said to be alone and by itself but God, who is His own circle, and can subsist by Himself.
We do but learn to-day what our better advanced judgements will unteach us tomorrow.
Think not thy time short in this world, since the world itself is not long. The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity, and a short interposition, for a time, between such a state of duration as was before it and may be after it.
Things evidently false are not only printed, but many things of truth most falsely set forth.
Many-have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.