Francis Bacon

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

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

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

No question is so difficult to answer as that which the answer is obvious.

A picture is a poem without words.

Money is indeed the most important thing in the world; and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Defeat in itself was part and parcel of the great gambling game of politics. A man who could not accept it and try again was not of the stuff of which leaders are made.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

No matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

It is proved…that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?