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.

Mark what a generosity and courage (a dog) will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God

States, as great engines, move slowly.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.