“The condition of man . . . is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.

War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting but in a tract of time,wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known.

Knowledge is power.

Desire, to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man

If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.

Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.

Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth.

Eloquence, with flattery, disposeth men to confide in them that have it; because the former is seeming wisdom, the latter seeming kindness.

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The understanding is by the flame of the passions never enlightened, but dazzled.

Look not at the greatness of the evil past, but the greatness of the good to follow.

Men are moved by appetites and aversions.

True’ and ‘false’ are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither ‘truth’ nor ‘falsehood.

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal.

I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts.

The marble keeps merely a cold and sad memory of a man who would else be forgotten. No man who needs a monument ever ought to have one.

Men should not petition for rights, but take them.

It all comes down, as it must, to the desires of individual men. Oh, and women too of course, bless their empty little heads.

To every man his little cross. Till he dies. And is forgotten.

There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Time and tide wait for no man.

Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed.