Francis Bacon

Mysteries are due to secrecy.

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

It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.

He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients, no, three, I think – yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Property is organized robbery.

It is a happy talent to know how to play.

Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.

Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.

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

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.

In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?

Help a man against his will and you do the same as murder him.

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.