"It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself."

"A man dies as often as he loses his friends."

"The surest way to prevent seditions...is to take away the matter of them."

"There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying."

"What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer."

"For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages."

"Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason."

"A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul a sick body is a prison."

"God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation."

"He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other."

"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world."

"Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety."

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator."

"Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly."

"It was a good answer that was made by one who when they showed him hanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their vows as having escaped shipwreck, and would have him say whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods, - 'Aye,' asked he again, 'but where are they painted that were drowned after their vows?' And such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happens much oftener, neglect and pass them by."

"I take all knowledge to be my province."

"Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt."

"The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one ... the more active and swift the latter is the further he will go astray."

"Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience."

"The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit and not when they miss and commit to memory the one and forget and pass over the other."

"God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires."

"Nay, the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, "The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out;" as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God's playfellows in that game."

"God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave."

"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."

"The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate."

"Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out."

"Things alter for the worse spontaneously if they be not altered for the better designedly."

"Silence is the virtue of fools."

"Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."

"God's first creature, which was light."

"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable."

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action."

"All rising to great places is by a winding stair."

"They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations."

"Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time."

"Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion."

"The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself."

"If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics."

"Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid."

"Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue."

"Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New."

"Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it."

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."

"Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure."

"God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures."

"In taking revenge a man is but equal to his enemy but in passing it over he is his superior."

"Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business."

"If a man looks sharply and attentively he shall see fortune for though she be blind yet she is not invisible."

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."

"The worst solitude is to have no real friendships."