Francis Bacon Quotes

The virtue of adversity is fortitude which in mortals is the heroical virtue.

God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

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

Nay, the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, "The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out;" as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God's playfellows in that game

man's sense is falsely asserted to be the standard of things; on the contrary, all the perceptions both of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not to the Universe, and the human mind resembles these uneven mirrors which impart their own properties to different objects, from which rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them.

The surest way to prevent seditions...is to take away the matter of them.

We gave ourselves for lost men, and prepared for death. Yet we did lift up our hearts and voices to God above, who "showeth His wonders in the deep"; beseeching Him of His mercy, that as in the beginning He discovered the face of the deep, and brought forth dry land, so He would now discover land to us, that we might not perish.

Nature to be commanded must be obeyed.

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.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure, it's a little like making love, the physical act of love.

I would address one general admonition to all, that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or for fame, or power, or any of these inferior things, but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from lust of power that the Angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell, but of charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man come in danger by it.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

The only really interesting thing iswhat happens between two people in a room.

The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body and reduce it to harmony.

For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice which the more man's nature runs to the more ought law to weed it out.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Knowledge itself is power

the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

Fortune is like the market where many times if you can stay a little the price will fall.

The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion

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.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.

Wonder is the seed of knowledge

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

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.

Time is the greatest innovator.

God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.

Little do men perceive what solitude is and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company and faces are but a gallery of pictures and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love.

Generally music feedeth that disposition of the spirits which it findeth.

Despise no new accident in your body, but ask opinion of it… There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man’s observation, what he finds good and of what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.

Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

The sun though it passes through dirty places yet remains as pure as before.

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance the virtue of adversity is fortitude which in morals is the heroical virtue.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations.

It was a good answer that was made by one who when they showed him hanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their vows as having escaped shipwreck, and would have him say whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods, — ‘Aye,’ asked he again, ‘but where are they painted that were drowned after their vows?’ And such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happens much oftener, neglect and pass them by.

Money is like muck - not good unless it be spread.

Where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.

It is a poore Center of a Mans Actions, Himselfe.

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences b

Riches are for spending.

The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one ... the more active and swift the latter is the further he will go astray.

It is left only to God and to the angels to be lookers on.

REVENGE is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works, divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.

Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.