The voices / 104 fragments

Robert Burton

1576 AD — 1640 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Historical source references

Anatomy of Melancholy

Archive entries

01c. 1608 AD

Naught so sweet as melancholy.

Robert Burton / quote

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02c. 1608 AD

I would help others, out of a fellow-feeling.

Robert Burton / quote

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03c. 1608 AD

They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works.

Robert Burton / quote

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04c. 1608 AD

We can say nothing but what hath been said. Our poets steal from Homer. . . . Our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.

Robert Burton / quote

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05c. 1608 AD

I say with Didacus Stella, a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.

Robert Burton / quote

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06c. 1608 AD

It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us.

Robert Burton / quote

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07c. 1608 AD

I had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her young ones.

Robert Burton / quote

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08c. 1608 AD

As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight.

Robert Burton / quote

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09c. 1608 AD

Like the watermen that row one way and look another.

Robert Burton / quote

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10c. 1608 AD

Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes.

Robert Burton / quote

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11c. 1608 AD

Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself.

Robert Burton / quote

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12c. 1608 AD

Rob Peter, and pay Paul.

Robert Burton / quote

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13c. 1608 AD

Penny wise, pound foolish.

Robert Burton / quote

Meaning: Saving a small amount can be a poor bargain if it creates a much larger cost. Judge the total consequences of a decision rather than only the immediate saving.

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14c. 1608 AD

Women wear the breeches.

Robert Burton / quote

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15c. 1608 AD

Like Æsop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.

Robert Burton / quote

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16c. 1608 AD

Our wrangling lawyers . . . are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter,—some of them in hell.

Robert Burton / quote