“They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.”

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.

We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it.

The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.

One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.

I should only ever tell the king what he ought to do, not what he could do. For if the lion knows his own strength, no man could control him.

For men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust.

You wouldn’t abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn’t control the winds.

Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.

Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones.

Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich – for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?

The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.

By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life.

Food is an implement of magic, and only the most coldhearted rationalist could squeeze the juices of life out of it and make it bland. In a true sense, a cookbook is the best source of psychological advice and the kitchen the first choice of room for a therapy of the world.

I die the king’s faithful servant, but God’s first.

Howbeit, this one thing, son, I assure you on my faith, that if the parties will at hands call for justice, then, all were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right.