Francis Bacon

For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.

It is natural to die as to be born.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth… and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.

Self-command is the main discipline.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

No just cause is futile, even if it’s lost, if it helps make the future better than the past.

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence – neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift.

Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.

Recognize the ego for what it is: a collective dysfunction, the insanity of the human mind.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but will afterwards always propagate itself.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.