Francis Bacon

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

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

In charity there is no excess.

When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.

The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

Better a broken promise than none at all.

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

Give me insight into today and you may have the antique and future worlds.

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

Damn the subjunctive. It brings all our writers to shame.