Francis Bacon

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man’s own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

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

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, — for parents sometimes chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, — for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man’s body were to be divided into two parts, we are all one flesh and blood.

Be confident, not certain

Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

A toddling little girl is a center of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.