Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.
There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.
God's first creature, which was light.
Silence is the virtue of fools.
The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.
I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic, and certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.
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 with the other.
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.