Francis Bacon

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

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

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

Croesus said to Cambyses; That peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;we shall never surrender.

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books – even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.

A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.

It’s not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get back up.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Let us treat the men and women well: treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.

The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

The worst sin… is… to be indifferent.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!