Philosophy is the love of wisdom: Christianity is the wisdom of love.

Friendship is Love with jewels on, but without either flowers or veil.

Philosophy cannot raise the commonalty up to her level: so, if she is to become popular, she must sink to theirs.

Books, as Dryden has aptly termed them, are spectacles to read nature. Aeschylus and Aristotle, Shakespeare and Bacon, are priests who preach and expound the mysteries of man and the universe. They teach us to understand and feel what we see, to decipher and syllable the hieroglyphics of the senses.

When will talkers refrain from evil speaking: when listeners refrain from evil-hearing.

Histories used often to be stories: the fashion now is to leave out the story. Our histories are stall-fed: the facts are absorbed by the reflexions, as the meat is sometimes by the fat.

Is bread the better for kneading? so is the heart. Knead it then by spiritual exercises; or God must knead it by afflictions.