If a civil word or two will render a man happy, he must be a wretch indeed who will not tell them to him.

There is a truth and beauty in rhetoric; but it oftener serves ill turns than good ones.

Sense shines with double lustre when set in humility.

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn.