They [i.e. ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so Budaeus compares them; they climb an…

- Robert Burton

Melancholy can be overcome only by melancholy.

- Robert Burton

[T]hou canst not think worse of me than I do of myself.

- Robert Burton

Let thy fortune be what it will, 'tis thy mind alone that makes thee poor or rich, miserable or happy.

- Robert Burton

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

- Robert Burton

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

- Robert Burton

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

- Robert Burton

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

- Robert Burton

What a glut of books! Who can read them?

- Robert Burton