Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

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

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

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

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

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

By indignities men come to dignities.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

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

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.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

As the births of living creatures are at first ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

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.

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

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

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

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.