Francis Bacon

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.

Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.

God’s first creature, which was light.

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Try not. Do or do not… there is no try.

Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the idiots whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had left them a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favor of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favor of equality.

We are just statistics, born to consume resources.

We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.

If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real center of the household.

The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Remember where you came from.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

You know you’re a success when you look at your kids and realize they turned out better than you.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can’t fool the neighbors.