And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers, and that of my own I have only provided the string that ties them together.

Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto.

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present times?

It takes strong ears indeed to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship. For it is a healthy love that will risk wounding or offending in order to profer a benefit.

The honor of the conquest is rated by the difficulty.

Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not.

Laws are often made by fools, and even more often by men who fail in equity because they hate equality: but always by men, vain authorities who can resolve nothing.