Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

The remedy is worse than the disease.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Friends are thieves of time.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Knowledge is power.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.