For want of a block, man will stumble at a straw.

Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.

Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.

For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.

So, naturalists observe, a flea; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.

How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.

When I am in danger of bursting, I will go and whisper among the reeds.