Francis Bacon

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Nothing does more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Oaths are but words, and words are but wind.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.

If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?

The Jews generally give value. They make you pay; but they deliver the goods. In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.

We are wiser than we know.

But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy.

We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.