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

Words, when written, crystallize history; their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

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

All rising to great places is by a winding stair.

In superstition wise men follow fools

The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.

We cannot too often think there is a never sleeping eye, which reads the heart, and registers our thoughts

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

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

It is scarcely possible at once to admire and excel an author, as water rises no higher than the reservoir it falls from

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.

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

What is it then to have or have no wife, / But single thraldom, or a double strife?

Houses are built to live in and not to look on.

It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it that doth the hurt

For those who intend to discover and to understand, not to indulge in conjectures and soothsaying, and rather than contrive imitation and fabulous worlds plan to look deep into the nature of the real world...

Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home

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.