Of all the actions of a man’s life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all the actions of our lives, ’tis the most meddled with by other people.

Idolatry is in a man’s own thought, not in the opinion of another.

No man is the wiser for his learning.

It’s not the drinking to be blamed, but the excess.

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it’s twice as onerous a duty.

We pick out a text here and there to make it serve our turn; whereas, if we take it all together, and considered what went before and what followed after, we should find it meant no such thing.

The law against witches does not prove there be any; but it punishes the malice of those people that use such means to take away men’s lives.

Talk what you will of the Jews, – that they are cursed: they thrive wherever they come; they are able to oblige the prince of their country by lending him money; none of them beg; they keep together; and as for their being hated, why, Christians hate one another as much.

Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up dignity. In gluttony there must be eating, in drunkenness there must be drinking; ’tis not the eating, and ’tis not the drinking that must be blamed, but the excess. So in pride.

Ceremony keeps up things: ’tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost.