As the most generous vine, if it is not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems, and grows at last weak and fruitless; so dote the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither. Let me be pruned, that I may grow, rather than be cut up to burn.

...Covetousness, looking more at what we would have than at what we have.

Even the best things ill used become evils; and, contrarily, the worst things used well prove good.

It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most on Divine truth, that will prove the choicest, wisest, strongest Christian.

Fools measure actions, after they are done, by the event; wise men beforehand, by the rules of reason and right. The former look to the end, to judge of the act. Let me look to the act, and leave the end with God.

God loveth adverbs; and cares not how good, but how well.

Virtues go ever in troops; they go so thick, that sometimes some are hid in the crowd; which yet are, but appear not.