Francis Bacon

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

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

Anger makes dull men witty – but it keeps them poor.

Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men’s heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.

God’s first creature, which was light.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.

It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.

Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

It took me twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don’t bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

Enjoy yourself – it’s later than you think.

My reputation grows with every failure.

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.