Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

It is madness and a contradiction to expect that things which were never yet performed should be effected, except by means hitherto untried.

The eye of understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as you may see great objects through small crannies or levels, so you may see great axioms of nature through small and contemptible instances.

If I might control the literature of the household, I would guarantee the well-being of Church and State.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

An artist must learn to be nourished by his passions and by his despairs.