With what shift and pains we come into the World we remember not; but 'tis commonly found no easy matter to get out of it.

Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once.

Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living: All things fall under this name. The Sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, and the light but the shadow of God.

I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that we were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar way of coition; it is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.

I had rather stand the shock of a basilisk than the fury of a merciless pen.

Do the devils lie? No; for then even hell could not subsist.

Be substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others.