Books never pall on me. They discourse with us, they take counsel with us, and are united to us by a certain living chatty familiarity. And not only does each book inspire the sense that it belongs to its readers, but it also suggests the name of others, and one begets the desire of the other.

Great errors seldom originate but with men of great minds.

A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.

I desire that death find me ready and writing, or if it please Christ, praying and intears.

While life is in your body, you have the rein of all thoughts in your hands.

It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.

Nothing mortal is enduring, and there is nothing sweet which does not presently end in bitterness.