Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

I don't think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck.

I would live to study, not study to live.

The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a meeting, or knot, of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together : so are there a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes; and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible.

The natures and dispositions of men are, not without truth, distinguished from the predominance of the planets.

States, as great engines, move slowly.