John Aubrey Quotes

John Aubrey was born in Wiltshire, England. He was an English antiquary, biographer, historian, natural philosopher and author. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford University. He is perhaps best known as the author of the Brief Lives, his collection of short biographical pieces. He early displayed his interest in antiquities by calling attention to the prehistoric stones at Avebury, Wiltshire. His literary and scientific interests won him a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1663. Meanwhile, in his travels in England and Europe, he became entangled in love suits and lawsuits and avoided creditors. In 1667, he met the historian and antiquarian Anthony à Wood and began gathering materials for Wood’s projected Athenae Oxonienses, a vast biographical dictionary of Oxford writers and ecclesiastics. He wrote several books include: Miscellanies, Lives of Eminent Men, Natural History of Wiltshire, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, and Monumenta Britannica.