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
He that unburied lies wants not his hearse, For unto him a tomb's the Universe.
Natura nihil agit frustra [Nature does nothing in vain] is the only indisputible axiom in philosophy. There are no grotesques in nature; not any thing framed to fill up empty cantons, and unncecessary spaces.
A man may be in as just possession of the truth as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender.
I have tried if I could reach that great resolution . . . to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.
For the world, I count it not an inn, but a hospital; and a place not to live, but to die in.
Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.
I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Archilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me.
Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks.
No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.
It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million faces, there should be none alike.
Though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death.
Be charitable before wealth makes you covetous.
All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude.