Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

Custom is the principle magistrate of man's life.

They that reverence to much old times are but a scorn to the new.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

Moreover, the works already known are due to chance and experiment rather than to sciences; for the sciences we now possess are merely systems for the nice ordering and setting forth of things already invented; not methods of invention or directions for new works.

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.