Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

It cannot be that axioms established by argumentation should avail for the discovery of new works, since the subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily discover the way to new particulars, and thus render sciences active.

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

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

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

Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy.