“Every other sin hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of an excuse; envy alone wants both.”

— Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I, Section 2, member 3, subsection 7

About Robert Burton

1577 – 1640

English scholar, author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy".

“I would help others out of a fellow-feeling.”

“All my joys to this are folly / Naught so sweet as melancholy.”

“A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?”

“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”

“What is happiness? The feeling that power increases—that a resistance is overcome.”

“Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.”