If thou takest virtue for the rule of life, and valuest thyself upon acting in all things comfortably thereto, thou wilt have no cause to envy lords and princes; for blood is inherited, but virtue is common property, and may be acquired by all; it has, moreover, an intrinsic worth, which blood has not.

True valor lies in the middle between cowardice and rashness.

Dine on little, and sup on less.

Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of these devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is now in Hell, receiving the reward of his cursed invention, which is the cause that very often a cowardly base hand takes away the life of the bravest gentleman.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.

Urgent necessity prompts many to do things, at the very thoughts of which they perhaps would start at other times.

I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to base fellows is like throwing water into the sea.