Francis Bacon

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

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

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

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

Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which, like the air and the water, belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

Let them look up in the sky then…! if they must be so blind, that cannot see the truth in broad daylight, but must have the whole world in darkness to see the conceit of the stars…

Lying rides upon debt’s back.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.

The truth knocks on the door and you say, Go away, I’m looking for the truth, and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.

The honest truth is that every day was new, every day was a challenge, every day was starting from a fresh place, and as time went on, over the course of about two years, things became better and better. But I don’t think that there was for me anything like, ‘Ah, this is taking too long’, because ‘long’ didn’t exist. So I see it as a blessing. I have to laugh. I mean there’s no other way to look at it.

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are economical in its use.

The bullsh*t is more interesting than the truth.

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth–anonymously and posthumously.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.