"At last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them."

"A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie."

"I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree."

"Given a choice between a folly and a sacrament, one should always choose the folly—because we know a sacrament will not bring us closer to god and there’s always the chance that a folly will."

"Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known."

"War is sweet to those who have not experienced it."

"It is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all."

"...it is a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors to put feigned names to their works, as if, like bastards of their brain, they were afraid to own them."

"I put up with this church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that I will become better."

"By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men's minds of him."

"The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly."

"Young bodies are like tender plants, which grow and become hardened to whatever shape you've trained them."

"How do you like our England, you will say? Believe me when I assure you that I have never liked anything as much before."

"The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death."

"I know this is overused...but it is accurate! When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes."

"Tis the part of a truly prudent man not to be wise beyond his condition, but either to take no notice of what the world does, or run with it for company"

"I hate one that remembers what's done over the cup."

"When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes."

"And so when the whole man will be outside himself, and happy for no reason except that he is so outside himself, he will enjoy some of the ineffable share in the supreme good which draws everything into itself."

"It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst."