The original of all great and lasting societies consisted not in the mutual good will men had toward each other, but in the mutual fear they had of each other.

If I had read as much as other men I would have known no more than they.

The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.

Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.

The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.

What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he that, living idly, getteth little and spendeth all he gets, seeing the one hath no more protection from the commonwealth than the other?

By consequence, or train of thoughts, I understand that succession of one thought to another which is called, to distinguish it from discourse in words, mental discourse. When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently.