I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.

Ask a wise man to dinner and he'll upset everyone by his gloomy silence or tiresome questions. Invite him to a dance and you'll have a camel prancing about. Haul him off to a public entertainment and his face will be enough to spoil the people's entertainment.

They may attack me with an army of six hundred syllogisms; and if I do not recant, they will proclaim me a heretic.

It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.

What passes out of one's mouth passes into a hundred ears. It is a great misfortune not to have sense enough to speak well.

The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

Don't give your advice before you are called upon.