Francis Bacon

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

No man’s fortune can be an end worthy of his being.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.

You cannot run faster than a bullet.

We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

What a lot of things there are a man can do without.

It’s them as take advantage that get advantage I this world.

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.