In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

The genius of any single man can no more equal learning, than a private purse hold way with the exchequer.

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

...neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher science.

Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life.

Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion.

For no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come.