Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.
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It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!
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They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
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Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
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There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self.
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He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
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Age will not be defied.
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Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.
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Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
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Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
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People of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom drive business home to it's conclusion, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
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Anger makes dull men witty -- but it keeps them poor.
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Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.
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Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man.
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It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
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I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
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Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
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The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
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There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
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Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.
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Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested.
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Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
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If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.
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If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
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That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.
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In charity there is no excess.
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To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.
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Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
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Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.
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A good conscience is a continual feast.
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Consistency is the foundation of virtue.
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Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.
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The place of justice is a hallowed place.
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If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
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God's first creature, which was light.
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People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.
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It is natural to die as to be born.
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It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.
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I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.
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The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First to lay asleep opposition and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are against them. The second is to reserve a man's self a fair retreat: for if a man engage himself, by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another. For to him that opens himself, men will hardly show themselves adverse; but will fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought.
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The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.
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They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they see nothing but sea.
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Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.
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Cure the disease and kill the patient.
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Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.
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In contemplation, if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
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Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
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Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight.
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None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.
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Riches are for spending.
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Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.
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Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
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Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.
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He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
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Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
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Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
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Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
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It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.
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This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
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Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
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Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.
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The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
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God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasure.
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A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.
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For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.
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It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment.
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Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
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Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
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The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.
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Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
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Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.
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Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
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In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.
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Acorns were good until bread was found.
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As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.
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By indignities men come to dignities.
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God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
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Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.
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Knowledge is power.
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Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
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Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
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Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.
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Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.
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Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.
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Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.
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For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
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Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.
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Wives are young men's mistresses; companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.
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No man's fortune can be an end worthy of his being.
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Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.
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If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.
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Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
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Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.
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Mysteries are due to secrecy.
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The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
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The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
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Nature is commanded by obeying her.
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Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.
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A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
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Opportunity makes a thief.
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Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.
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Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.
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The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
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Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.
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Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.
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We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
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The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.
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It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
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Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.
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It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.
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All colors will agree in the dark.
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Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
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He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.
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I hold every man a debtor to his profession.
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Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.
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The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.
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God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.
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Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
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A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
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A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
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The mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
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A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.
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Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
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Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.
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Science is but an image of the truth.
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People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.
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Silence is the virtue of fools.
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Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.
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The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.
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I would live to study, and not study to live.
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There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.
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In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.
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To choose time is to save time.
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Time is the measure of business.
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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.
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It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth... and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.
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What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
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There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
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Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.
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Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
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The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
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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.
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Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
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For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.
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Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
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