Francis Bacon

None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.

The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

For knowledge itself is power.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget…

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author.

They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.

Remember where you came from.

All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of story-tellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible; and the prophets would prophesy and the teachers teach in vain.

Where a blood relation sobs, an intimate friend should choke up, a distant acquaintance should sigh, a stranger should merely fumble sympathetically with his handkerchief.

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.