Francis Bacon

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

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

I was born upon thy bank, river, my blood flows in thy stream, and thou meanderest forever. At the bottom of my dream.

Every being is in search of truth, but small fears go on preventing you.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.

Cities force growth and make people talkative and entertaining, but they also make them artificial.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

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

In the scenery of spring, nothing is better, nothing worse; the flowering branches are; some long, some short.

A picture is a poem without words.