Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

I want a very ordered image, but I want it to come about by chance.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel nor man come in danger by it.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.

And as for Mixed Mathematics, I may only make this prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as nature grows further disclosed.