No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.
Thomas BrowneRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is fleeting, but it is part of a much larger continuum of time.
This quote reflects on the transient nature of our existence within the vast expanse of time. Thomas Browne emphasizes that while our lives might feel short, they are merely a brief moment in the grand narrative of eternity, suggesting that we should not be overly concerned with the brevity of our lives but rather appreciate our place in the larger context of existence.
Themes
TimeEternityExistenceLifePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about making the most of your life.
More from Thomas Browne
All quotes →Content may dwell in all stations. To be low but above contempt may be high enough to be happy.
Thomas BrowneRead
Thus there are two books from whence I collect my Divinity; besides that written one of God, another of his servant Nature, that universal and public Manuscript, that lies expans'd unto the eyes of all; those that never saw him in the one, have discovered him in the other.
Thomas BrowneRead
To be content with death may be better than to desire it.
Thomas BrowneRead
Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living.
Thomas BrowneRead
The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.
Thomas BrowneRead
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I have a hundred times heard him say, that all ages and nations have represented their gods as wicked, in a constantly increasing progression; that mankind have gone on adding trait after trait till they reached the most perfect conception of wickedness which the human mind could devise, and have called this God, and prostrated themselves before it.
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