When a Roman was returning from a trip, he used to send someone ahead to let his wife know, so as not to surprise her in the act.

Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.

I listen with attention to the judgment of all men; but so far as I can remember, I have followed none but my own.

We commend a horse for his strength, and sureness of foot, and not for his rich caparisons; a greyhound for his share of heels, not for his fine collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her jesses and bells. Why, in like manner, do we not value a man for what is properly his own? He has a great train, a beautiful palace, so much credit, so many thousand pounds a year, and all these are about him, but not in him.

Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.

I never met a man who thought his thinking was faulty.

Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would have had me.