Francis Bacon

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

Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.

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

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

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

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

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrate to some stroke of the imagination.

We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful; for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees. Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.

The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

It is all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.