Francis Bacon

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.

A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

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.

These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

My love for you was like a poem I wrote; one that I disregarded as average. Torn out, thrown away to the rubbish heap, waiting; wishing to be picked up and appreciated by someone else, for the masterpiece that it is.

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.

A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.

I have never accepted what many people have kindly said-namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

The years teach much what the days never knew.

Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real center of the household.