Francis Bacon

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

When you know better you do better.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar – that I call an achievement.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

I want to be free; to escape. I use my pen as oars; the paper as my boat. I fill these pages to keep me afloat. I ride the waves of turmoil, so I can paddle away to calmer seas.

I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable.