Francis Bacon

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind . . . turn upon the poles of truth.

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth . . . and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.

There are three parts in truth: first, the inquiry, which is the wooing of it; secondly, the knowledge of it, which is the presence of it; and thirdly, the belief, which is the enjoyment of it.

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

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

Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion.

Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.

They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.

Silence is the virtue of fools.