Francis Bacon Quotes on Human nature
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We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
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For man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection: and they be three wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever: wisdom of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and wisdom of state.
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What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
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Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
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There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.
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So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward.
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Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.
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If you would work any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him or his weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
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Who then to frail mortality shall trust But limns the water, or but writes in dust.