I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.

The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.

Faith, that's as well said as if I had said it myself.

Venus, a beautiful, good-natured lady, was the goddess of love; Juno, a terrible shrew, the goddess of marriage: and they were always mortal enemies.

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.

I forget whether advice be among the lost things which Ariosto says are to be found in the moon: that and time ought to have been there.

So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns