Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so the smallest affairs disturb us most.

Examples teach us that in military affairs, and all others of a like nature, study is apt to enervate and relax the courage of man, rather than to give strength and energy to the mind.

There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other.

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.

The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learnt to die has forgot to serve.

Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.