It has well been said that the arch-flatterer, with whom all petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self.

The world's a bubble, and the life of man, Less than a span.

Man seeketh in society comfort, use and protection.

To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men.

I should have been, I don't know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity and chance.

For no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come.

Why should a man be in love with his fetters, though of gold?

Liberty of speech invites and provokes liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man's knowledge.

Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.