Quote

I cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express the actions of their inward forms.

Thomas Browne

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Thomas Browne
Age: 77 †
Born: 1605
Born: October 19
Died: 1682
Died: October 19
Author
Philosopher
Physician
Physician Writer
Writer
London
England
Sir Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
Tell
Ugly
Elephants
Cannot
Shapes
Outward
Form
Bears
Inward
Best
Figures
Logic
Created
Express
Beauty
Bear
Toad
Call
Forms
Toads
Action
Actions
Elephant

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Gold once out of the earth is no more due unto it what was unreasonably committed to the ground, is reasonably resumed from it let monuments and rich fabricks, not riches, adorn men's ashes.
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Things evidently false are not only printed, but many things of truth most falsely set forth.
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I love to lose myself in a mystery to pursue my reason to an O altitudo.
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Many-have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.
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Yes, even amongst wiser militants, how many wounds have been given, and credits slain, for the poor victory of an opinion, or beggarly conquest of a distinction.
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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.
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A little water makes a sea, a small puff of wind a Tempest.
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By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.
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Affection should not be too sharp eyed, and love is not made by magnifying glasses.
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God hath varied the inclinations of men according to the variety of actions to be performed.
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It is we that are blind, not fortune because our eye is too dim to discern the mystery of her effects, we foolishly paint her blind, and hoodwink the providence of the Almighty.
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All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.
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We censure others but as they disagree from that humor which we fancy laudable in ourselves, and commend others but for that wherein they seem to quadrate and consent with us.
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Suicide is not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life. It is a brave act of valour to contemn death but when life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valour to dare to live and herein religion hath taught us a noble example, for all the valiant acts of Curtius, Scarvola, or Codrus, do not parallel or match that one of Job.
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Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion.
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There is no royal road or ready way to virtue.
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