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

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider."

"Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress."

"The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears."

"Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul."

"Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of Man."

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

"We cannot command Nature except by obeying her."

"Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."

"The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs."

"I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am."

"It is a poore Center of a Mans Actions, Himselfe."

"Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom."

"The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding."

"Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability."

"This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well."

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

"The only really interesting thing iswhat happens between two people in a room."

"For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself."

"We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do."

"Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread."

"It is left only to God and to the angels to be lookers on."

"Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience."

"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus CAsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order."

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other."

"Money is like muck - not good unless it be spread."

"Knowledge is power."

"Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter."

"Riches are for spending."

"Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out."

"Old wood best to burn old wine to drink old friends to trust and old authors to read."

"We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the hands. For have not some books continued twenty-five hundred years or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, and cities have been decayed and demolished?"

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."

"There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends but he joyeth the more and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friends but he grieveth the less."

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly."

"Reading makes a full man conference a ready man and writing an exact man."

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

"We gave ourselves for lost men, and prepared for death. Yet we did lift up our hearts and voices to God above, who "showeth His wonders in the deep"; beseeching Him of His mercy, that as in the beginning He discovered the face of the deep, and brought forth dry land, so He would now discover land to us, that we might not perish."

"Where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage."

"Opportunity makes a thief."

"The best work and of greatest merit for the public has proceeded from the unmarried or childless men."

"The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure, it's a little like making love, the physical act of love."

"The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied."

"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."

"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."

"The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon."

"A man finds himself seven years older the day after his marriage."

"There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little."

"The best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend."