Francis Bacon

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.

He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.

All professions are conspiracies against the laity.

Cruelty would be delicious if one could only find some sort of cruelty that didn’t really hurt.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

I don’t do quagmires.

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.

Things do not change; we change.

Children are all foreigners.

The purity men love is like the mists which envelope the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond.