Francis Bacon Quotes (437 Quotes)

There is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.

Mark what a generosity and courage (a dog) will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God

For knowledge itself is power.

Let diaries, therefore, be brought in use.

My essays . . . come home, to men's business, and bosoms.

That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.

Cunning is a sinister or crooked wisdom.

Nature is commanded by obeying her.

The world's a bubble and the life of man Less than a span.

Set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents as to follow them.

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.

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

To choose time is to save time.

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.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy i.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

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.

There was a young man in Rome that was very like Augustus Caesar Augustus took knowledge of it and sent for the man, and asked him 'Was your mother never at Rome' He answered 'No Sir but my father was.'

Virtue is like precious odours,- most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.

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

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

If we begin with certainties, we will end in doubt. But if we begin with doubts and bear them patiently, we may end in certainty.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

Riches are for spending.

Of great riches there is no real use, except in the distribution the rest is but conceit

The genius of any single man can no more equal learning, than a private purse hold way with the exchequer.

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.

Great riches have sold more men than they have bought.

When a bee stings, she dies. She cannot sting and live. When men sting, their better selves die. Every sting kills a better instinct. Men must not turn bees and kill themselves in stinging others.

Chiefly the mold of a mans fortune is in his own hands.

Science is the labor and handicraft of the mind poetry can only be considered its recreation.

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

Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.

Many secrets of art and nature are thought by the unlearned to be magical.

Fortunes . . . come tumbling into some men's laps.

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest . . .

The more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth.

Histories make men wise poets, witty the mathematics, subtle natural philosophy, deep morals, grave logic And rhetoric, able to contend.

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

For it is esteemed a kind of dishonour unto learning to descend to inquiry or meditation upon matters mechanical, except they be such as may be thought secrets, rarities, and special subtleties, which humour of vain supercilious arrogancy is justly derided in Plato.... But the truth is, they be not the highest instances that give the securest information as may well be expressed in the tale ... of the philosopher, that while he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water for if he had looked down he might have seen the stars in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that mean and small things discover great, better than great can discover the small.

It is scarcely possible at once to admire and excel an author, as water rises no higher than the reservoir it falls from.

Defer not charities till death for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another mans than of his own.

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

There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death ... Revenge triumphs over death love slights it honor aspireth to it grief flieth to it.

He that defers his charity until he is dead is, if a man weighs it rightly, rather liberal of another man's goods than his own

If any human being earnestly desires to push on to new discoveries instead of just retaining and using the old to win victories over Nature as a worker rather than over hostile critics as a disputant to attain, in fact, clear and demonstrative know.

Severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave and not taunting.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.

He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.