Hope is to a man as a bladder to a learning swimmer--it keeps him from sinking in the bosom of the waves, and by that help he may attain the exercise; but yet it many times makes him venture beyond his height, and then if that breaks, or a storm rises, he drowns without recovery. How many would die, did not hope sustain them! How many have died by hoping too much! This wonder we find in Hope, that she is both a flatterer and a true friend.

Honesty is a warrant of far more safety than fame.

Virtue were a kind of misery if fame were all the garland that crowned her.

In business, three things are necessary: knowledge, temper, and time.

He who would be singular in his apparel had need have something superlative to balance that affectation.

It is a most unhappy state to be at a distance with God: man needs no greater infelicity than to be left to himself.

Irresolution is a worse vice than rashness. He that shoots best may sometimes miss the mark; but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution loosens all the joints of a state; like an ague, it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man is lifted from one place to another; so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.