"Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?"

Book ii. Chap. xxxvi. Of the most Excellent Men.

"Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem."

Book ii. Chap. xxxvii. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Brothers.

"There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity."

Book ii. Chap. xxxvii. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers.

"The public weal requires that men should betray and lie and massacre."

Book iii. Chap. i. Of Profit and Honesty.

"Like rowers, who advance backward."

Book iii. Chap. i. Of Profit and Honesty.

"I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older."

Book iii. Chap ii. Of Repentance.

"Few men have been admired by their own domestics."

Book iii. Chap. ii. Of Repentance.

"It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out."

Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.

"And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one."

Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.

"All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me."

Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.

"'T is so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so. The strange lustre that surrounds him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there broken and dissipated, being stopped and filled by the prevailing light."

Book iii. Chap. vii. Of the Inconveniences of Greatness.

"We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge."

Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.

"I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance."

Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.

"What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?"

Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.

"The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried."

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"Not because Socrates said so, . . . I look upon all men as my compatriots."

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"My appetite comes to me while eating."

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life."

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"Saturninus said, "Comrades, you have lost a good captain to make him an ill general.""

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"A little folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity."

Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

"Habit is a second nature."

Book iii. Chap. x.

"We seek and offer ourselves to be gulled."

Book iii. Chap. xi. Of Cripples.

"I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself."

Book iii. Chap. xi. Of Cripples.

"Men are most apt to believe what they least understand."

Book iii. Chap. xi. Of Cripples.

"I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together."

Book iii. Chap. xii. Of Physiognomy.

"Amongst so many borrowed things, I am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service."

Book iii. Chap. xii. Of Physiognomy.

"I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret the things, and more books upon books than upon all other subjects; we do nothing but comment upon one another."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head."

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"I, who have so much and so universally adored this ariston metron, "excellent mediocrity," of ancient times, and who have concluded the most moderate measure the most perfect, shall I pretend to an unreasonable and prodigious old age?"

Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience.

"The world 's a stage where God's omnipotence, His justice, knowledge, love, and providence Do act the parts."

First Week, First Day.

"And reads, though running, all these needful motions."

First Week, First Day.

"Mercy and justice, marching cheek by joule."

First Week, First Day.

"Not unlike the bear which bringeth forth In the end of thirty dayes a shapeless birth; But after licking, it in shape she drawes, And by degrees she fashions out the pawes, The head, and neck, and finally doth bring To a perfect beast that first deformed thing."

First Week, First Day.

"What is well done is done soon enough."

First Week, First Day.

"And swans seem whiter if swart crowes be by."

First Week, First Day.

"Night's black mantle covers all alike."

First Week, First Day.

"Hot and cold, and moist and dry."

First Week, Second Day.

"Much like the French (or like ourselves, their apes), Who with strange habit do disguise their shapes; Who loving novels, full of affectation, Receive the manners of each other nation."

First Week, Second Day.

"With tooth and nail."

First Week, Second Day.

"From the foure corners of the worlde doe haste."

First Week, Second Day.

"Oft seen in forehead of the frowning skies."

First Week, Second Day.

"From north to south, from east to west."

First Week, Second Day.

"Bright-flaming, heat-full fire, The source of motion."

First Week, Second Day.

"Not that the earth doth yield In hill or dale, in forest or in field, A rarer plant."

First Week, Third Day.

"'T is what you will,--or will be what you would."

First Week, Third Day.

"Or savage beasts upon a thousand hils."

First Week, Third Day.