In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

If we desire God, we shall seek His Kingdom.

Think personally, act communally.

All fortune belongs to him who has a contented mind.

It almost feels like a movie or a- I know it's been said many times - that cable television is the new novel kind of thing - but it does feel like that.

When you are getting kicked from the rear it means you are in front.

I always wanted to do something completely different.

I wish to walk in such a line as will give most general satisfaction.

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

In this job it's like beasts of prey in a cage

We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.