It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. And whereas they have, all their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their self-wisdom, to have pinioned. As the births of living creatures, at first are ill-shapen so are all innovations, which are the births of time.
Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be.
Therefore measure not dispatch, by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business. But it is one thing, to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. And business so handled, at several sittings or meetings, goeth commonly backward and forward in an unsteady manner. On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing. But sometimes it is seen, that the moderator is more troublesome, than the actor.