Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.
Francis Bacon
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Knowledge is power.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
The remedy is worse than the disease.
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
It is impossible to love and to be wise.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.
Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.
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.
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.
We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Opportunity makes a thief.
Friends are thieves of time.
A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.
God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.
If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.
Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.
It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.
Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.
The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
