Francis Bacon

They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

This is the foundation of all. We are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what nature does or may be made to do.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.

There was never a century nor a country that was short of experts who knew the Deity’s mind and were willing to reveal it.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Those who would mend the world must first mend themselves.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.

My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the moon. You don’t have to become my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.

Where God does not govern, tyrants will rule.