It is madness and a contradiction to expect that things which were never yet performed should be effected, except by means hitherto untried.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

Men seem neither to understand their riches nor their strength. Of the former they believe greater things than they should; of the latter, less.

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.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

One of the fathers saith . . . that old men go to death, and death comes to young men.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.