FRANCIS BACON QUOTES

English philosopher (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon quote

They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: God


This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves. But this is a sure rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great, when the cause of it in him is small; or if the envy be general, in a manner upon all the ministers of an estate; then the envy (though hidden) is truly upon the state itself. And so much of public envy or discontentment, and the difference thereof from private envy, which was handled in the first place.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Envy", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: envy


Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Truth," Essays

Tags: truth


If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: doubt


And because it works better, when anything seemeth to be gotten from you by question, than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by showing another visage, and countenance, than you are wont; to the end to give occasion, for the party to ask, what the matter is of the change? As Nehemias did; And I had not before that time, been sad before the king.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Cunning", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: question


Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Youth and Age", Essays; or Counsels Civil and Moral

Tags: action


States as great engines move slowly.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning


Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Studies," Essays

Tags: books


Man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: society


God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: gardening


Who then to frail mortality shall trust
But limns the water, or but writes in dust.

FRANCIS BACON

The World

Tags: immortality


Physicians are, some of them, so pleasing and conformable to the humor of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease; and some other are so regular, in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper; or if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either sort; and forget not to call as well, the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Regiment Of Health", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: art


In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: revenge


He that hath a satirical vein, as maketh others afraid of his wit, so he need be afraid of others' memory.

FRANCIS BACON

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: satire


For quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoided. They are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Travel", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: words


Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: history


A man shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons in years seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth, as to make up the comeliness.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Beauty", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: youth


What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Truth", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: truth


Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

FRANCIS BACON

Apothegms

Tags: hope


Art is man added to Nature.

FRANCIS BACON

Descriptio Globi Intellectus

Tags: art