Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell.
Fortune makes him fool, whom she makes her darling.
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.
No artist knows in his own lifetime whether what he does will be the slightest good, because it takes at least seventy-five to a hundred years before the thing begins to sort itself out.
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason