Francis Bacon

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.

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

The gap that’s opened I’m filling with fairy dust, hues of the heart and a joy for life what was… I invite to exit right quietly, in shades of black and white.

In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others

When you place yourself in a position to help another, you will discover your greater capabilities.

When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

Travel is a fools paradise.

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.

It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.