“Fact be virtuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth.”

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.

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.

Leisure is the mother of Philosophy.

If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?

In the very shadows of doubt a thread of reason (so to speak) begins, by whose guidance we shall escape to the clearest light.

The light of humane minds is perspicuous words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity, reason is the pace.

The Power of a Man is his present means, to obtain some future apparent Good.

Some outlets shouldn’t even call themselves news providers; they’re just entertainment gossip without any sort of accountability or fact-checking.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They’re there; they’re life. If it’s not science, it’s not a fact.

Other than the fact that I like a country house, I can’t think of anything I’d want to spend my money on.

Autobiography is never entirely true. No one can get the right perspective on himself. Every fact is colored by imagination and dream.

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.

I’ve learned, That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

It’s a fact that it is much more comfortable to be in the position of the person who has been offended than to be the unfortunate cause of it.

As a matter of fact and experience, the more power is divided the more irresponsible it becomes.