Francis Bacon

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Friends are thieves of time.

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.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. [Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.Lat.]

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

Not to be provok’d is best: But if mov’d, never correct till the Fume is spent; For every Stroke our Fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Ready are you? What know you of ready?

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

Life is a disease; and the only difference between one man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives. You are always at the crisis: I am always in the convalescent stage.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

I am neither of the East nor of the West, no boundaries exist within my breast.

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.

Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.

Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character.