The surest way to prevent seditions (if the times do bear it) is to take away the matter of them.

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

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

Measure not dispatch by the time of sitting, but by the advancement of business

Nature is commanded by obeying her.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

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

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

It is impossible to love and be wise

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...

The remedy is worse than the disease.

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery; at first it deceives, at last it betrays

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

For none deny there is a God, but those for whom it maketh that there were no God.

Set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents as to follow them.

For knowledge itself is power.

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

by indignities men come to dignities

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

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

Certainly it is a heaven upon earth, to have a man’s mind to move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

Custom is the principle magistrate of man’s life

Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.

History makes people wise.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Science is but an image of the truth.

God’s first creature, which was light.

Severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave and not taunting.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding that it can hold men’s hearts by hopes when it cannot by satisfaction

Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils.

I have taken all knowledge to be my province

He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.

Ask a counsel of both times-of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest

If we begin with certainties, we will end in doubt. But if we begin with doubts and bear them patiently, we may end in certainty.

Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man’s self; and where there is no comparison, no envy.

The speaking in perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love

Time is the measure of business.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

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

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

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.