Francis Bacon

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do.

The true artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.

You are braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And smarter than you think.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

One may make their house a palace of sham, or they can make it a home, a refuge.

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.

There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.