Ornamenta Rationalia

The Ornamenta Rationalia is a collection of aphorisms published by Francis Bacon along with his Essays.

Quotes

 * Arcum intensio frangit; animum, remissio.
 * Much bending breaks the bow. Much unbending, the mind.


 * Cum vitia prosint, peccat qui recte facit.
 * If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.


 * The flood of grief decreaseth, when it can swell no higher.


 * The fortune which nobody sees makes a man happy and unenvied.


 * Malus ubi bonum se simulat, tunc est pessimus.
 * A bad man is worst when he pretends to be a saint.


 * They live ill, who think to live for ever.


 * The coward calls himself a cautious man; and the miser says, he is frugal.


 * It is a strange desire which men have, to seek power and lose liberty.


 * A mixture of falsehood is like alloy in gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it debaseth it.


 * Death ... extinguishes envy.


 * He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own wounds green.


 * If [things] be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon- the waves of fortune.


 * Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs.


 * Riches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared nor left behind, but they hinder the march.


 * Riches have sold more men than ever they have bought.


 * A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.


 * The beautiful prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study, for the most part, rather behaviour than virtue.


 * The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express.


 * While a man maketh his train longer, he maketh his wings shorter.


 * Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity the blessing of the New.