Francis Bacon

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

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

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

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

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.

Our most important task is to transform our consciousness so that violence is no longer an option for us in our personal lives, that understanding that a world of peace is possible only if we relate to each other as peaceful beings, one individual at a time.

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.

That’s what I can’t stand. I know I’ll bounce back, and that’s what I can’t stand.

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

Never do wrong when people are looking.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.