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

Hope is the most beneficial of all the affections, and doth much to the prolongation of life.

The light that a man receives by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which comes from his own understanding and judgment, which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs.

The voice of the people has about it something divine: for how otherwise can so many heads agree together as one?

God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.

The mold of our fortunes is in our own hands.

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