A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.

Prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past.

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

The first cause of Absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of Method.

For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.