Francis Bacon

Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.

Patience – the gift of being able to see past the emotion.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

I’ve never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.

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

What is it they want from a man that they didn’t get from his work? What do they expect? What is there left of him when he’s done his work? What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What’s left of the man when the work’s done but a shambles of apology.

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep. Who dare while others fly.They build a nation’s pillars deep. And lift them to the sky.

A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation — a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.