There is a cunning which we in England call “the turning of the cat” in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he says it as if another had said it to him.
The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
He who desires solitude is either an animal or a god.
A just fear of an imminent danger, though be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.
The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth.
They that reverence to much old times are but a scorn to the new.
Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.
A much talking judge is an ill-tuned cymbal.
It has well been said that the arch-flatterer, with whom all petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man’s self.
The errors of young men are the ruin of business, but the errors of aged men amount to this, that more might have been done, or sooner.
Praise is the reflection of virtue.
If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.
I want a very ordered image, but I want it to come about by chance.
Lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle ways and witty reconcilements, – as if they would make an arbitrament between God and man.
Friendship redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.
Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely.
He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.
Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell.