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.

Where there is no common power, there is no law

It's my turn, to take a leap into the darkness!

By this we may understand, there be two sorts of knowledge, whereof the one is nothing else but sense, or knowledge original (as I have said at the beginning of the second chapter), and remembrance of the same; the other is called science or knowledge of the truth of propositions, and how things are called, and is derived from understanding.

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

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.

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