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Francis Bacon Quotes

Philosopher
Born On
1561-01-22
Died On
1626-04-09
Birth Place
Strand, London, England
Death Place
Highgate, London, England
Birth Sign
aquarius
Father
Sir Nicholas Bacon
Mother
Anne
Spouse
Alice Barnham
Nationality
British
Education
Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Poitiers, University of Cambridge

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

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Francis Bacon

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Francis Bacon

The remedy is worse than the disease.

Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

Francis Bacon

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Francis Bacon

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Francis Bacon

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

Francis Bacon

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Francis Bacon

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Francis Bacon

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

Francis Bacon

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

Francis Bacon

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Francis Bacon

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

Francis Bacon

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

Francis Bacon

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

Francis Bacon

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Francis Bacon

Friends are thieves of time.

Francis Bacon

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

Francis Bacon

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Francis Bacon

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Francis Bacon

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

Francis Bacon

Opportunity makes a thief.

Francis Bacon

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Francis Bacon

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

Francis Bacon

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Francis Bacon

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Francis Bacon

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

Francis Bacon

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

Francis Bacon

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Francis Bacon

Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.

Francis Bacon

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Francis Bacon

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

Francis Bacon

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Francis Bacon

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Francis Bacon

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Francis Bacon

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Francis Bacon

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

Francis Bacon

Science is but an image of the truth.

Francis Bacon

The worst men often give the best advice.

Francis Bacon

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Francis Bacon

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

Francis Bacon

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Francis Bacon

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

Francis Bacon

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

Francis Bacon

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

Francis Bacon

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

Francis Bacon

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Francis Bacon

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.

Francis Bacon

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

Francis Bacon

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

Francis Bacon

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

Francis Bacon

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

Francis Bacon

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Francis Bacon

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

Francis Bacon

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

Francis Bacon

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

Francis Bacon

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

Francis Bacon

But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Francis Bacon

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

Francis Bacon

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Francis Bacon

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

Francis Bacon

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

Francis Bacon

God's first creature, which was light.

Francis Bacon

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.

Francis Bacon

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

Francis Bacon

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

Francis Bacon

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

Francis Bacon

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Francis Bacon

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

Francis Bacon