What Is All Our Histories,

I Have Not The Particular Shining Bauble Or Feather In My Cap For Crowds To Gaze At Or Kneel To, But I Have Power And Resolution For Foes To Tremble At.

I Was By Birth A Gentleman, Living Neither In Any Considerable Height, Nor Yet In Obscurity. I Have Been Called To Several Employments In The Nation - To Serve In Parliaments, - And ( Because I Would Not Be Over Tedious ) I Did Endeavour To Discharge The Duty Of An Honest Man In Those Services, To God, And His People's Interest, And Of The Commonwealth; Having, When Time Was, A Competent Acceptation In The Hearts Of Men, And Some Evidence Thereof.

I Was By Birth A Gentleman, Living Neither In Any Considerable Height Nor Yet In Obscurity.

I Would Have Been Glad To Have Lived Under My Wood Side, And To Have Kept A Flock Of Sheep, Rather Than To Have Undertaken This Government.

A Man Never Rises Higher Than When He Does Not Know Whither His Path Can Still Lead Him.