Francis Bacon

It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder’s moral perceptions are known and conceded the world over; and a priveleged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

Children demand that their heroes should be freckleless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.

Every old poem is sacred.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

We know better than we do. We do not yet possess ourselves…

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

The Public is merely a multiplied “me”.