“The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.”
“The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.”
“We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.”
“God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.”
“For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.”
“Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.”
“There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.”
“It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.”
“Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.”
“Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is.”
“Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.”
“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.”
“As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.”
“The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.”
“Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.”
“The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.”
“It was prettily devised of Aesop, ''The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise! ''”
“Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.”
“Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.”
“People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.”
“Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.”
“Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.”
“For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.”
“It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.”
“The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.”
“To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.”
“Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.”
“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”
“Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.”
“I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.”