Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

Be advised what thou dost discourse of, and what thou maintainest whether touching religion, state, or vanity; for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be accounted profane; if in the second, dangerous; if in the third, indiscreet and foolish.

In a word, we may gather out of History a policy no less wise than I eternal; by the comparison and application of other mens fore-passed miseries with our own like errours and ill-deservings.

A man must first govern himself ere he is fit to govern a family; and his family ere he be fit to bear the government of the commonwealth.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

The most divine light only shineth on those minds which are purged from all worldly dross and human uncleanliness.

The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most lawless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law.