Lovers of Lordships

Some gan to gape for greedy governance,
And match themselves with mighty potentates
Lovers of lordships, and troublers of States.

-John Milton

Better in a Fair Than in a Wood Alone

If the mind be possessed with any lust or passion, a man had better be in a fair than in a wood alone. They may, like petty thieves, cheat us perhaps, and pick our pockets in the midst of company; but like robbers they use to strip and bind, or murder us when they catch us alone.

-Abraham Cowley

Natural Scissors

As scissors were made to cut up cloth, so were natural rights invented to cut up law, and legal rights.

- Jeremy Bentham

The Conceit of Ignorance

If a man is to pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows.

-Epictetus

Royalty

Royalty is a good burial shroud.

-Procopius

Virtue

Virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

-Edmund Burke

Splendid in Ashes

Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature.

-Sir Thomas Browne