Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

We must see whether the same clock with weights will go faster at the top of a mountain or at the bottom of a mine; it is probable, if the pull of the weights decreases on the mountain and increases in the mine, that the earth has real attraction.

You can't be more horrific than life itself.

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

For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble.

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.