Quotations and Poems

» Action » “It was prettily devised of Aesop, ”The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise! ””

» Adaptability » “They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.”

» Adversity » “Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.”

» Advice » “He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.”

» Advice » “There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self.”

» Age and Aging » “Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.”

» Age and Aging » “Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”

» Age and Aging » “People of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom drive business home to it’s conclusion, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.”

» Age and Aging » “Age will not be defied.”

» Anger » “Anger makes dull men witty — but it keeps them poor.”

» Atheism » “Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man.”

» Atheism » “I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.”

» Atheism » “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”

» Atheism » “Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.”

» Bachelor » “Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.”

» Beauty » “The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.”

» Beauty » “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”

» Bible » “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”

» Bible » “The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.”

» Boldness » “Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.”

» Books and Reading » “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

» Books and Reading » “Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested.”

» Certainty » “If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.”

» Certainty » “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

» Change » “That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.”

» Charity » “In charity there is no excess.”

» Cheerfulness » “To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.”

» Choice » “Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.”

» Conscience » “A good conscience is a continual feast.”

» Consistency » “Consistency is the foundation of virtue.”

» Consistency » “Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.”

» Court » “The place of justice is a hallowed place.”

» Courtesy » “If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.”

» Creation » “God’s first creature, which was light.”

» Custom » “People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.”

» Death and Dying » “I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.”

» Death and Dying » “It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.”

» Death and Dying » “It is natural to die as to be born.”

» Desire » “The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.”

» Discovery » “They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they see nothing but sea.”

» Discretion » “Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.”

» Doctors » “Cure the disease and kill the patient.”

» Doubt » “In contemplation, if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

» Doubt » “Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.”

» Doubt » “Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight.”

» Doubt » “Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men’s heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.”

» Envy » “None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.”

» Excess » “Riches are for spending.”

» Facts » “Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.”

» Fame » “Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.”

» Fame » “Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.”

» Family » “He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.”

» Fate » “Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.”

» Fate » “Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.”

» Fear » “It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.”

» Fear » “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.”

» Forgiveness » “This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.”

» Fortune » “Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.”

» Friends and Friendship » “The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.”

» Gardening and Gardens » “God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasure.”

» Grace » “A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.”

» Heresy » “For my name and memory I leave to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.”

» History and Historians » “Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”

» History and Historians » “It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.”

» Home » “Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.”

» Honor » “The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.”

» Hope » “Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.”

» Humankind » “Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.”

» Humor » “Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is.”

» Ideas » “In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.”

» Improvement » “Acorns were good until bread was found.”

» Innovation » “As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.”

» Insults » “By indignities men come to dignities.”

» Intelligence and Intellectuals » “God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.”

» Justice » “Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.”

» Knowledge » “Knowledge and human power are synonymous.”

» Knowledge » “Knowledge is power.”

» Law and Lawyers » “Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.”

» Learning » “Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.”

» Learning » “Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.”

» Lies and Lying » “Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.”

» Life and Living » “Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.”

» Love » “Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.”

» Love » “For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.”

» Marriage » “Wives are young men’s mistresses; companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.”

» Money » “If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.”

» Money » “No man’s fortune can be an end worthy of his being.”

» Money » “Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.”

» Money » “Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.”

» Money » “Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.”

» Mystery » “Mysteries are due to secrecy.”

» Nationalities and Nationalism » “The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.”

» Nature » “Nature is commanded by obeying her.”

» Nature » “The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.”

» Opportunity » “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

» Opportunity » “Opportunity makes a thief.”

» Opposition » “Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.”

» Painters and Painting » “Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.”

» Parents and Parenting » “The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.”

» Past » “Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.”

» Patience » “Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.”

» Philosophers and Philosophy » “We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.”

» Poetry and Poets » “The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man’s body.”

» Politicians and Politics » “It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.”

» Power » “It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man’s self.”

» Power » “Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.”

» Prejudice » “All colors will agree in the dark.”

» Present » “Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”

» Problems » “He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.”

» Professions and Professionals » “I hold every man a debtor to his profession.”

» Prosperity » “Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.”

» Proverbs » “The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.”

» Providence » “God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.”

» Questions » “A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.”

» Questions » “Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.”

» Questions » “A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”

» Responsibility » “The mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.”

» Revenge » “Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.”

» Revenge » “A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.”

» Riches » “Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.”

» Science and Scientists » “Science is but an image of the truth.”

» Servants » “People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.”

» Silence » “Silence is the virtue of fools.”

» Solitude » “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”

» Speech » “Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.”

» Strategies » “The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.”

» Studying » “I would live to study, and not study to live.”

» Suspicion » “There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.”

» Thoughts and Thinking » “In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.”

» Time and Time Management » “Time is the measure of business.”

» Time and Time Management » “To choose time is to save time.”

» Training » “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”

» Truth » “What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.”

» Truth » “Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.”

» Truth » “It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth… and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.”

» Trying » “There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.”

» Variety » “Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.”

» Virtue » “Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.”

» Wealth » “The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.”

» Wisdom » “There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.”

» Wisdom » “Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.”

» Wisdom » “For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.”

» Youth » “Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.”