Francis Bacon

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

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

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

Stupidity is something you can only partly save people from.

It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every new relationship is a new word.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

There is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

Men love to wonder and that is the seed of our science.

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez, and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemption of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the message of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. Amen.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

Character is just another word for having a perfectly disciplined and educated will.