Francis Bacon

All colors will agree in the dark.

Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.

Kings in this should imitate God, their mercy should be above their works.

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

You must not only aim right, but draw the bow with all your might.

Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

Never be bored, and you will never be boring.

A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man’s crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore there be any kindness I can show…let me do it now.- William Penn

The quieter you become, you more you are able to hear.