A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.

It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands

Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back.

Again there is another great and powerful cause why the sciences have made but little progress; which is this. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.