Francis Bacon

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

He that gives good advice builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example builds with both.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

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.

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman – repose in energy.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.

Valor consists in the power of self recovery.

A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Of course, money will do after its kind, and will steadily work to unspiritualize and unchurch the people to whom it was bequeathed.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

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

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