Thomas Browne Quotes (1605-1682)

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About Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne, MD (19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682) was an English author of varied works which disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric.

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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Thomas Browne quotes.

β€œPursue Virtue virtuously.”
Thomas Browne
β€œRich with the spoils of Nature.”
Thomas Browne
β€œArt is the perfection of nature.”
Thomas Browne
β€œThere is no road or ready way to virtue.”
Thomas Browne
β€œI look upon you as a gem of the old rock.”
β€œBe charitable before Wealth makes thee covetous.”
β€œThe long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.”
Thomas Browne
β€œObstinacy in a bad cause, is but constancy in a good.”
β€œAll things are artificial, for nature is the Art of God.”
Thomas Browne
β€œPersecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion.”
Thomas Browne
β€œHe who discommendeth others obliquely commendeth himself.”
β€œA little water makes a sea, a small puff of wind a Tempest.”
Thomas Browne
β€œThis reasonable moderator, and equal piece of justice, Death.”
Thomas Browne
β€œHappy are they that go to bed with grave music like Pythagoras.”
Thomas Browne
β€œThe created World is but a small Parenthesis in Eternity.”
Thomas Browne
β€œWe all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.”
β€œBe substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others.”
β€œThat some have never dreamed is as improbable as that some have never laughed.”
Thomas Browne
β€œTime which antiquates Antiquities, and hath an art to make dust of all things.”
β€œI love to lose myself in a mystery to pursue my reason to an O altitudo.”
β€œWhen we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.”
Thomas Browne
β€œI can cure the gout or stone in some, sooner than Divinity, Pride, or Avarice in others”
Thomas Browne
β€œNo man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another.”
Thomas Browne
β€œA man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender.”
β€œThe heart of man is the place the devil dwells in; I feel sometimes a hell within myself.”

Thomas Browne Quotes by Topic

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Thomas Browne on Physiognomy 2 quotes

β€œ[T]here is surely a Physiognomy, which those experienced and Master Mendicants observe… For there are mystically in our faces certain Characters that carry in them the motto of our Souls, wherein he that cannot read A.B.C. may read our natures.”
Thomas Browne
View all 2 quotes on Physiognomy →

Thomas Browne on Gemstone

β€œI look upon you as a gem of the old rock.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Eternity

β€œThe created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Worth

β€œTo be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.”

Thomas Browne on Roses

β€œWhen we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Words

β€œWhen we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Censure

β€œNo man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Pisces

β€œWho will not commend the wit of astrology? Venus, born out of the sea, hath her exaltation in Pisces.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Religiousness

β€œThere is surely a piece of divinity within us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Humility

β€œ"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." This great law of the kingdom of God is, in the teaching of Christ, inscribed over its entrance-gate.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Moment

β€œThe number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the Γ†quinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Equinox

β€œThe number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the Γ†quinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment.”
Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne on Saturn

β€œBurden not the back of Aries, Leo, or Taurus, with thy faults, nor make Saturn, Mars, or Venus, guilty of thy Follies. Think not to fasten thy imperfections on the Stars, and so despairingly conceive thy self under a fatality of being evil.”
Thomas Browne

What Thomas Browne Said About Others

Discover personal opinions Thomas Browne shared regarding contemporaries.

Thomas Browne on Pythagoras

β€œI have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret Magic of numbers.”
Thomas Browne

About Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne, MD (19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682) was an English author of varied works which disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric.