Francis Bacon

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

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

A good conscience is a continual feast.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

Science is but an image of the truth.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

The stars are the apexes of what triangles!

Big doors swing on little hinges.

Cities give us collision. ‘Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

A mother’s yearning feels the presence of the cherished child even in the degraded man.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Every stroke our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

I always forgive others. The anger; sadness; frustration; pain, whatever feelings I felt, no matter the hurt; the tears, I always found understanding and reason to forgive them; to not hold onto it; to not resent them. But there is one, who I never seem to be able to give absolution, and that’s myself.

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life…all of our life.

No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.