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.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

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

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

Fate, then, is a name for facts not yet passed under the fire of thought; for causes which are unpenetrated.

It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.

Nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man.

We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within and available to you now.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

Life is a festival only to the wise.

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.