There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Praise is the reflection of virtue.

Nor is mine a trumpet which summons and excites men to cut each other to pieces with mutual contradictions, or to quarrel and fight with one another; but rather to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of Things

Another error is an impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell.