The Anatomy of Melancholy

It is difficult, I admit; yet I have arranged them as best I could, and will now proceed to specify them according to their types. So far I have ranged within broader boundaries or terms, speaking without distinction of the ordinary signs that occur among writers. They are not all to be found in one person, for that would be to paint a monster or Chimera, not a person: some occur in one, some in another, and those successively or at different times.

I have taken all the more care to express and report these things, not to reproach anyone in misery or to ridicule them—I pity them instead—but to distinguish their troubles more clearly and apply remedies to them. And to show that even the best and soundest among us is in great danger; how much we ought to fear for our own unstable condition, remember our miseries and vanities, examine and humble ourselves, turn to God and call upon him for mercy. We need not look for rods with which to scourge ourselves, since we carry them in our own bowels; and our souls are in miserable captivity unless the light of grace and heavenly truth shines continually upon us. We should therefore use our judgment to govern ourselves and be more watchful and cautious amid these dangers.