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

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

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no...

A man’s conscience and his judgement is the same thing; and as the judgement, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

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

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

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

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man’s own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

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

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns. His hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it...

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

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

God’s first creature, which was light.

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.

The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.