Francis Bacon

Opportunity makes a thief.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

You cannot run faster than a bullet.

The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not being a thief any more. Thieving is God’s message to him. Let him try and be a good thief.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

You who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities and think long and hard on what your powers are equal to and what they are unable to perform.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend.

Merry Christmas! the man threatened.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

Never learn to do anything. If you don’t learn, you will always find someone else to do it for you.

Let us treat the men and women well: treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

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.