If there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire.

Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.

Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. 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.

Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts.

Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.

To speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.

There is no secrecy comparable to celerity.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

There be many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances.