ALEATOR, quanto in arte est melior, tanto est nequior - A gamester, the greater master he is in his art, the worse man he is.
Arcum intensio frangit; animum, remissio - Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending, the mind.
Bis vincit, qui se vincit in victoria - He conquers twice, who restrains himself in victory.
Cum vitia prosint, peccat qui recte facit - If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.
Bene dormit, qui non sentit quod male dormiat - He sleeps well, who is not conscious that he sleeps ill.
Deliberare utilia, mora est tutissima - To deliberate about useful things is the safest delay.
Dolor decrescit, ubi quo crescat non habet - The flood of grief decreaseth, when it can swell no higher.
Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor - Pain makes even the innocent man a liar.
Etiam celeritas in desiderio, mora est - In desire, swiftness itself is delay.
Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam - Even a single hair casts a shadow.
Fidem qui perdit, quo se servat in reliquum ? - He that has lost his faith, what staff has he left ?
Formosa facies muta commendatio est - A beautiful face is a silent commendation.
Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit - Fortune makes him fool, whom she makes her darling.
Fortuna obesse nulli contenta est semel - Fortune is not content to do a man but one ill turn.
Facit gratum fortuna, quem nemo videt - The fortune which nobody sees makes a man happy and unenvied.
Heu ! quam miserum est ab illo lædi, de quo non possis queri - O ! what a miserable thing it is to be injured by those of whom we cannot complain.
Homo toties moritur quoties amittit suos - A man dies as often as he loses his friends.
Hæredis fletus sub persona risus est - The tears of an heir are laughter under a mask.
Jucundum nihil est, nisi quod reficit varietas - Nothing is pleasant to which variety does not give relish.
Invidiam ferre, aut fortis, aux felix potest - He may be envied, who is either courageous or happy.
In malis sperare bonum, nisi innocens, nemo potest - In adversity, only the virtuous can entertain hope.
In vindicando, criminosa est celeritas - In revenge, haste is criminal.
In calamitoso risus etiam injuria est - In misfortune, even to smile is to offend.
Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit - He accuseth Neptune unjustly, who makes shipwreck a second time.
Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam - He that injures one, threatens many.
Mora omnis ingrata est, sed facit sapientiam - All delay is unpleasant, but we are the wiser for it.
Mori est felicis antequam mortem invocet - Happy he who dies ere he calls on death.
Malus ubi bonum se simulat, tunc est pessimus - A bad man is, worst when he pretends to be a saint.
Magno cum periculo custoditur, quod multis placet - Lock and key will scarce keep that secure which pleases everybody.
Male vivunt qui se semper victuros putant - They live ill, who think to live for ever.
Male secum agit æger, medicum qui hæredem facit - That sick man does ill for himself, who makes his physician his heir.
Multos timere debet, quem multi timent - He of whom many are afraid, ought himself to fear many.
Nulla tam bona est fortuna, de qua nil possis queri - There's no fortune so good, but it bates an ace.
Pars beneficii est quod petitur, si bene neges - That is half granted which is denied graciously.
Timidus vocat se cautum, parcum sordidus - The coward calls himself a cautious man; and the miser says, he is frugal.
O vita ! misero longa, felici brevis - O life ! an age to the miserable, a moment to the happy.
The following are sentences extracted from the writings of Lord Bacon:-
It is a strange desire which men have, to seek power and lose liberty.
Children increase the cares of life: but they mitigate the remembrance of death.
Round dealing is the honour of man's nature; and a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it debaseth it.
Death openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own wounds green.
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things which belong to adversity are to be admired.
He that cannot see well, let him go softly.
If a man be thought secret, it inviteth discovery; as the more close air sucketh in the more open.
Keep your authority wholly from your children, not so your purse.
Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on, they think themselves go back.
As in nature things move more violently to their place, and calmly in their place: so virtue in ambition is violent; in authority, settled and calm.
Boldness in civil business, is like pronunciation in the orator of Demosthenes; the first, second, and third thing.
Boldness is blind: whereof 'tis ill in counsel, but good in execution. For in counsel it is good to see dangers, in execution not to see them, except they be very great.
Without good-nature, man is but a better kind of vermin.
God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.
The great atheists indeed are hypocrites, who are always handling holy things, but without feeling, so as they must needs be cauterized in the end.
The master of superstition is the people. And in all superstition, wise men follow fools.
In removing superstitions, care should be had, that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad; which commonly is done, when the people is the physician.
He that goeth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
It is a miserable state of mind (and yet it is commonly the case of kings) to have few things to desire, and many to fear.
Depression of the nobility may make a king more absolute, but less safe.
All precepts concerning kings are, in effect, comprehended in these remembrances: Remember thou art a man; remember thou art God's vicegerent. The one bridleth their power, and the other their will.
Things will have their first or second agitation. If they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune.
The true composition of a counsellor is rather to be skilled in his masters business than his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour.
Fortune sometimes turneth the handle of the bottle, which is easy to be taken hold of; and after the belly, which is hard to grasp.
Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with an hundred eyes; and the ends of them to Briareus with an hundred hands; first to watch and then to speed.
There is a great difference betwixt a cunning man and a wise man. There be that can pack the cards, who yet cannot play well; they are good in canvasses and factions, and yet otherwise mean men.
Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs.
New things, like strangers, are more admired and less favoured.
It were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived.
They that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new.
The Spaniards and Spartans have been noted to be of small despatch. Mi venga la muerte de Spagna - Let my death come from Spain; for then it will be sure to be long a-coming.
You had better take for business a man somewhat absurd, than over-formal.
Those who want friends to whom to open their griefs, are cannibals of their own hearts.
Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the people are of weak courage; for (as Virgil says) it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be.
Let states, that aim at greatness, take heed how their nobility and gentry multiply too fast. In coppice woods, if you leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes.
A civil war is like the heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health.
Suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds, they ever fly by twilight.
Base natures, if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true.
Men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness. Certainly he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memory.
Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.
Men seem neither well to understand their riches, nor their strength; of the former they believe greater things than they should and of the latter much less. And from hence fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning.
Riches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared nor left behind, but they hinder the march.
Great riches have sold more men than ever they have bought out.
He that defers his charity till he is dead, is (if a man weighs it rightly) rather liberal of another man's, than of his own.
Ambition is like choler; if he can move, it makes men active; if it be stopped, it becomes adust, and makes men melancholy.
To take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs.
Some ambitious men seem as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy. For no man will take such parts, except he be like the seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him.
Princes and states should choose such ministers as are more sensible of duty than rising; and should discern a busy nature from a willing mind.
A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.
If a man look sharp and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though she be blind, she is not invisible.
Usury bringeth the treasure of the realm or state into a few hands: for the usurer being at certainties, and the others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the money will be in the box.
Virtue is best in a body that hath rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect. 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.
He who builds a fair house upon an ill seat commits himself to prison.
If you would work on any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his weaknesses and disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him.
Costly followers (among whom we may reckon those who are importunate in suits) are not to be liked; lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he maketh his wings shorter.
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
Seneca saith well, that anger is like rain, that breaks itself upon that it falls.
Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation.
High treason is not written in ice; that when the body relenteth, the impression should go away.
The best governments are always subject to be like the fairest crystals, when every icicle or grain is seen, which in a fouler stone is never perceived.
In great place ask counsel of both times: of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.
The virtue of prosperity is temperance, of adversity fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favour.