Sir Thomas Browne

Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist Continuing a series on God and the human condition: If we are read more

Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist Continuing a series on God and the human condition: If we are directed only by our particular natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but moralists; divinity will still call us heathens. Therefore this great work of charity must have other motives, ends, and impulsions. I give no alms to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfil and accomplish the will and command of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoined it; I relieve no man upon the rhetoric of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition, for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than reason.

Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it were his own
executioner.

Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it were his own
executioner.

To extend our memories by monuments, whose death we daily pray
for, and whose duration we cannot hope, without read more

To extend our memories by monuments, whose death we daily pray
for, and whose duration we cannot hope, without injury to our
expectations in the advent of the last day, were a contradiction
to our belief.

Think not thy time short in this world, since the world itself is
not long. The created world is read more

Think not thy time short in this world, since the world itself is
not long. The created world is but a small parenthesis in
eternity, and a short interposition, for a time, between such a
state of duration as was before it and may be after it.

Festination may prove Precipitation;
Deliberating delay may be wise cunctation.

Festination may prove Precipitation;
Deliberating delay may be wise cunctation.