William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley KG PC (1521–98) was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. Albert Pollard says, “From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth and from the history of England.”
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Be not served with kinsmen, or friends, or men entreated to stay; for they expect much, and do little; nor with such as are amorous, for their heads are intoxicated; and keep rather too few, than one too many.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Topics: Servants
Win hearts, and you have all men’s hands and purses.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Topics: Kindness
Beware of suretyship for thy best friend. He that payeth another man’s debt seeketh his own decay. But if thou canst not otherwise choose, rather lend thy money thyself upon good bonds, although thou borrow it; so shalt thou secure thyself, and pleasure thy friend.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
A man can buy nothing in the market with gentility.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Topics: Manners
Trust not any man with thy life, credit, or estate. For it is mere folly for a man to enthrall himself to his friend, as though, occasion being offered, he might not become an enemy.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Topics: Trust
Never trust anybody not of sound religion, for he that is false to God can never be true to man.
—William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Topics: Religion
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