Francis Bacon

The mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.

Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men’s heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.

New arts destroy the old.

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

Anger makes dull men witty – but it keeps them poor.

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms.

The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.

What you don’t do can be a destructive force.

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.

In all debates let truth be thy aim; not victory or an unjust interest; and endeavor to gain rather than to expose thy antagonist.

We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend.