I have gathered a posy of other men's flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own.

I have seen no more evident monstrosity and miracle in the world than myself.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

At the very beginning of my fevers and sicknesses that cast me down, whilst still entire, and but little, disordered in health, I reconcile myself to Almighty God by the last Christian, offices, and find myself by so doing less oppressed and more easy, and have got, methinks, so much the better of my disease. And I have yet less need of a notary or counsellor than of a physician.

A man must be a little mad if he does not want to be even more stupid.

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition - and perchance to some excess - I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.

It (marriage) happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.

Let no man be ashamed to speak what he is not ashamed to think.

Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself.