Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

Breed is stronger than pasture.

There are no have-to’s, just choices.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

You don’t create things, you discover things.

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance.

Cities give us collision. ‘Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.

Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.

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.

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.