Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

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

There arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

Art is man added to Nature.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.