Francis Bacon

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

The remedy is worse than the disease.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is – Let there be truth between us two forevermore.

Where God does not govern, tyrants will rule.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.

If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.

Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise.

We never become really and genuinely our entire and honest selves until we are dead – and not then until we have been dead years and years. People ought to start dead and then they would be honest so much earlier.

Part of her mystery is how she is calm in the storm and anxious in the quiet.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake . . . by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.