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| Discontent is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole fountain full of blackness. It casts a cloud over the mind, and renders it more occupied about the evil which disquiets it than about the means of removing it. | 1 |
| Discontents are sometimes the better part of our life. | 2 |
| Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer. | 3 |
| Gold is the fool’s curtain, which hides all his defects from the world. | 4 |
| He that would be singular in his apparel had need of something superlative to balance that affectation. | 5 |
| In things that may have a double sense, it is good to think the better was intended; so shall we still both keep our friends and quietness. | 6 |
| Irresolution loosens all our joints: like an ague, it shakes not this limb or that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man hatches nothing, but addles all his actions. | 7 |
| It is to be doubted whether he will ever find the way to heaven who desires to go thither alone. | 8 |
| Knowledge is the treasure of the mind, but discretion is the key to it, without which it is useless. The practical part of wisdom is the best. | 9 |
| Laughter should dimple the cheek, not furrow the brow. | 10 |
| Love is never lasting which flames before it burns. | 11 |
| Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass, whereby in her long removes she discerneth God as if he were nearer at hand. | 12 |
| Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves. | 13 |
| Occasion reins the motions of the stirring mind. | 14 |
| Promises may get friends, but it is performance that must nurse and keep them. | 15 |
| Riches, though they may reward virtues, yet they cannot cause them; he is much more noble who deserves a benefit than he who bestows one. | 16 |
| Show me the man who would go to heaven alone, and I will show you one who will never be admitted. | 17 |
| There is no detraction worse than to overpraise a man. | 18 |
| Truth and fidelity are the pillars of the temple of the world; when these are broken, the fabric falls, and crushes all to pieces. | 19 |
| When two friends part, they should lock up one another’s secrets and exchange their keys. | 20 |
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| While we think to revenge an injury, we many times begin one, and after that repent our misconceptions. | 21 |
| Words are rather the drowsy part of poetry; imagination the life of it. | 22 |
| Words do sometimes fly from the tongue that the heart did neither hatch nor harbour. | 23 |
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