Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.

For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

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

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

But men must know, that in this theater of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Nor is mine a trumpet which summons and excites men to cut each other to pieces with mutual contradictions, or to quarrel and fight with one another; but rather to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of Things,

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

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.