That which above all other yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet.

Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest.

A forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the face of them who seek to tread it out.

Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Men are rather beholden ... generally to chance or anything else, than to logic, for the invention of arts and sciences.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.