Francis Bacon Quotes (437 Quotes)

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

History makes people wise.

To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.

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

Revenge is a kind of wild justice.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall But in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or man come in danger by it.

Death is a friend of ours and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other.

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

Man seeketh in society comfort, use and protection.

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.

The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.

Nay, number itself in armies importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage for, as Virgil saith, It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be

Nobility of birth commonly abateth industry.

There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.

We cannot too often think there is a never sleeping eye, which reads the heart, and registers our thoughts

Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.

Crafty men condemn Studies Simple men admire them And wise men use them.

The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.

There are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges.

For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

There are three things which make a nation great and prosperous a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance for men and commodities.

Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self And where there is no comparison, no envy.

The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds

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

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.

Houses are built to live in and not to look on.

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

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

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.

He said it, that knew it best.

Croesus said to Cambyses That peace was better than war because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons

It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man

This same Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not show the masques and mummeries and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candle lights.

Riches are a good handmaiden, but the worst mistress.

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.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

Mysteries are due to secrecy.

Measure not dispatch by the time of sitting, but by the advancement of business

In nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place.

I would live to study, not study to live.

Nothing is to be feared but fear.

It is the wisdom of the crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour.

Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way.

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