Francis Bacon

Measure not dispatch by the time of sitting but by the advancement of business

The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery, at first it deceives at last it betrays

Time is the measure of business.

Nakedness is uncomely as well in mind as body and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge of Wisdom heaven-born remain sweet running waters thou should'st not leave it to become a stagnant pond.

It is a secret both in nature and state that it is safer to change many things than one.

Age will not be defied.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.

It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune favor opportunity death of others occasion fitting virtue, but chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again, and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed but said 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet Mahomet will go to the hill'.

I have often thought upon death and I find it the least of all evils.

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

Man being the servant and interpreter of nature can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.

I have taken all knowledge to be my province

I will never be an old man. To me old age is always 15 years older than I am.

If a man look sharply and attentively he shall see Fortune, for though she is blind she is not invisible.

Man prefers to think what he prefers to be true

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

Out of monuments names words proverbs traditions private records and evidences fragments of stories passages of books and the like we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Nature is commanded by obeying her.

No man is angry that feels not himself hurt

The best preservative to keep the mind on health is the faithful admonition of a friend.

There are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open

He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry? 'A young man not yet an elder man not at all

Habit if wisely and skillfully formed becomes truly a second nature, but unskillfully and unmethodically depicted it will be as it were an ape of nature which imitates nothing to the life but only clumsily and awkwardly

Man seeketh in society comfort use and protection

Riches are a good handmaiden but the worst mistress.

Cure the disease and kill the patient.

There is little friendship in the world and least of all between equals.

It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions for it makes the other party stick the less.

A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation

It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are, but howsoever it be between nations certainly it is so between man and man

A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

In civil business, what first? Boldness, what second and third? Boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

Surely every medicine is an innovation and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.

I would live to study and not study to live

In things that a man would not be seen in himself it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world, as to say "The world says " or "There is a speech abroad."

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.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, adversity not without many comforts and hopes

For none deny there is a God but those for whom it maketh that there were no God.

Such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments or the like, wherein men having a delight in such vanities mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail though this happen much oftener.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him . . . when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed but said 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet Mahomet will go to the hill.'

Money is like manure of very little use except it be spread.

The sun which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.

Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.

Nothing is terrible except fear itself.

Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtile, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend.

It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first, because one cannot hold out that proportion

Nay number itself in armies importeth not much where the people is of weak courage, for as Virgil saith "It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be

People have discovered that they can fool the devil, but they can't fool the neighbors.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.

What then remains but that we still should cry for being born and being born to die?

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Sacred and inspired divinity the sabaoth and port of all men's labours and peregrinations.

That things are changed and that nothing really perishes and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same is sufficiently certain.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth and that a man giveth himself as there is between the counsel of a friend and a flatterer.

All colors will agree in the dark.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self, and where there is no comparison no envy.

Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

Study After Velasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X

Houses are built to live in not to look on, therefore let use be preferred before uniformity except where both may be had

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear, and yet that commonly is the case of kings

Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan," which is when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.

For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches and to foreign nations and the next ages.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

Truth is a good dog, but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Virtue is like precious odours - most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

What is it then to have or have no wife / But single thraldom or a double strife?

Silence is the virtue of fools.

What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.

Reading maketh a full man.

In nature things move violently to their place and calmly in their place

In superstition wise men follow fools

The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky, which is a number of smaller 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.