Francis Bacon - Essays (1597)

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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.

Francis Bacon
Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn.

Francis Bacon
New nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time.

Francis Bacon
Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius, if one mark them well, are but Essays—that is dispersed meditations.

Francis Bacon
Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when that faileth, he groweth out of use.

Francis Bacon
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that traveleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.

Francis Bacon
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Francis Bacon
Nuptial love maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it, but wonton love corrupteth and embaseth it.

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

Francis Bacon
Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

Francis Bacon
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."

Francis Bacon
Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

Francis Bacon
Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.

Francis Bacon
The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, doth fall under measure; and the greatness of finances and revenue, doth fall under computation. The population may appear by musters; and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet there is not any thing amongst civil affairs more subject to error, than the right valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an estate.

Francis Bacon
He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.

Francis Bacon
Neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial.

Francis Bacon
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.

Francis Bacon
In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

Francis Bacon
A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Francis Bacon
It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty.

Francis Bacon
For there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, That it is impossible to love, and to be wise.

Francis Bacon
Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.

Francis Bacon
The surest way to prevent seditions (if the times do bear it) is to take away the matter of them; for if there be fuel prepared it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire.

Francis Bacon
A man ought warily to begin charges which once begun will continue.

Francis Bacon
Costly followers are not to be liked; lest while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter.

Francis Bacon
A single life doth well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool.

Francis Bacon
It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter.

Francis Bacon
The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man: insomuch, that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures.

Francis Bacon
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

Francis Bacon
It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.

Francis Bacon