Francis Bacon

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession.

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

It is better to be frightened now than killed hereafter

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

It were Happy if we studied Nature more in natural Things; and acted according to Nature; whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

All the great ages have been ages of belief.

The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.