Francis Bacon

By indignities men come to dignities.

If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

God’s first creature, which was light.

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

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

Be an opener of doors.

If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.

Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.

The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

To be a man’s own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody’s.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Never do wrong when people are looking.

The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.

Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.

The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came first and the drunkenness afterwards, it would be moral to get drunk.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.