Princes give mee sufficiently, if they take nothing from me, and doe me much good, if they doe me no hurt: it is all I require of them.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.

A volunteer, you assign yourself specific roles and risks according to your judgement of their brilliance and importance, and you see when life itself may be justifiably devoted to them.

Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

Nature has, herself, I fear, imprinted in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity.

The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my time, the worst are not those which have most gained the popular applause.