Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.

It is with sincere affection or friendship as with ghosts and apparitions,--a thing that everybody talks of, and scarce any hath seen.

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.

The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.