It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first; because one cannot hold out that proportion

Consistency is the foundation of virtue.

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

A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation

Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.

If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.

Man prefers to think what he prefers to be true

The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.

Riches are for spending.

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

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

REVENGE is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of...

The desire for power in excess caused angels to fall; the desire for knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity is no excess, neither can man or angels come into danger by...

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

He that defers his charity until he is dead is, if a man weighs it rightly, rather liberal of another man’s goods than his own

Who then to frail mortality shall trust but limns on water, or but writes in dust

Nothing is terrible except fear itself.

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.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth.

For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes

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

My Lord St. Albans said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

A wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, `Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner’.

We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do . For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except...

The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.

It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that...

Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.

All things are admired either because they are new or because they are great

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.

Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a number of smaller stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together; so it is a number of little and scarce...

Chiefly the mold of a man’s fortune is in his own hands

A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open

What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.

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

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.