Francis Bacon

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

Ask counsel of both timesof the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.

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

For knowledge itself is power.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

God is better served in resisting a Temptation to Evil, than in many formal Prayers.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

A hen is only a egg’s way of making another egg.

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

Every man is an impossibility until he is born.

The soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, by virtue of having no willing association with the body in life but avoiding it… Practicing philosophy in the right way is a training to die easily.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

Knowledge exists to be imparted.