Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.
Ask counsel of both times-of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.
In this theater of man's life, it is reserved only for God and for angels to be lookers-on.
Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way.
Dolendi modus, timendi non item. (To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.)
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.