A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.

About Robert Burton

Robert Burtonwas an English author and fellow of Oxford University, known for his encyclopedic The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burton attended two grammar schools and matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1593, age 15.

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More quotes from Robert Burton

Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small offenses.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Almost in every kingdom the most ancient families have been at first princes’ bastards.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

We can make mayors and officers every year, but not scholars.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

A quiet mind cureth all.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Worldly wealth is the Devil’s bait; and those whose minds feed upon riches recede, in general, from real happiness, in proportion as their stores increase, as the moon, when she is fullest, is farthest from the sun.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Idleness is an appendix to nobility.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

One was never married, and that’s his hell; another is, and that’s his plague.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular all his life long.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

What is life, when wanting love? Night without a morning; love’s the cloudless summer sun, nature gay adorning.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

A good conscience is a continual feast.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)

To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.

Robert Burton

English scholar (1577-1640)