Bacon, Francis

"The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express."

"Friends are thieves of time."

"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."

"There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health."

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

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

"If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics."

"Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished."

"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable."

"Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion."

"Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper." - Apophthegms

"Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress." - De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum

"Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study." - Essays

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." - Essays

"The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it." - Essays

"Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death." - Essays

"Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other." - Essays

"It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other." - Essays

"Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid." - Essays

"It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings." - Essays

"The arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self." - Essays

"This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half." - Essays

"It is impossible to love and to be wise." - Essays

"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread." - Essays

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

"The joys of parents are secret: and so are their griefs and fears." - Essays

"It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self." - Essays

"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well." - Essays

"All rising to great place is by a winding stair." - Essays

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator." - Essays

"Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set." - Essays

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." - Essays

"Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise." - Essays

"Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business." - Essays

"For knowledge, too, is itself power." - Meditationes Sacrae

"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed." - Novum Organum

"The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds." - Novum Organum

"The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it." - Novum Organum

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties." - The Advancement of Learning