He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.