Francis Bacon

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.

Knowledge is power.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

The remedy is worse than the disease.

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character, putting together all their yesterdays and averaging them, we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support, it is worse than a large family, he is the silent poor indeed.

I desire to gain your Love and Friendship by a kind, Just and Peaceful Life.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

My emancipation don’t fit your equation.

Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius’s violins without Antonio.

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

Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature . . . no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent.

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.