By how much one man has more experience of things past, than another, by so much also he is more prudent, and his expectations the seldomer fail him.

When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death.

So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.

The first author of speech was God himself, that instructed Adam how to name such creatures as He presented to his sight.

The science which teacheth arts and handicrafts is merely science for the gaining of a living; but the science which teacheth deliverance from worldly existence, is not that the true science?

Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money.

Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion