Francis Bacon

Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

And deep in my heart. The answer, it was in me. And I made up my mind. To define my own destiny.

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!

If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.

I desire to gain your Love and Friendship by a kind, Just and Peaceful Life.

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

If you wish me to weep, you must first show grief yourself.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

Youth is wasted on the young.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ is a snivelling modern invention, with no warrant in the gospels.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.