All histories do show, and wise politicians do hold it necessary that, for the well-governing of every Commonweal, it behoveth man to presuppose that all men are evil, and will declare themselves so to be when occasion is offered.

Our shipping and sea service is our best and safest defence as being the only fortification and rampart of England.

The longer it possesseth a man the more he will delight in it, and the older he groweth the more he shall be subject to it; for it dulleth the spirits, and destroyeth the body as ivy doth the old tree, or as the worm that engendereth in the kernal of the nut.

Whosoever in writing a modern history shall follow the truth too near the heels it may haply strike out his teeth.

Our bodies are but the anvils of pain and disease and our minds the hives of unnumbered cares.

Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.

Better it were not to live than to live a coward.