War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known.
The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.
The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.
Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.
A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.
Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.
The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.
I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.
A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.
The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them.