Francis Bacon (1561—1626)

Sir Francis Bacon (later Lord Verulam and the Viscount St. Albans) was an English lawyer, statesman, essayist, historian, intellectual reformer, philosopher, and champion of modern science. Early in his career he claimed “all knowledge as his province” and afterwards dedicated himself to a wholesale revaluation and re-structuring of traditional learning. To take the place of the established tradition (a miscellany of Scholasticism, humanism, and natural magic), he proposed an entirely new system based on empirical and inductive principles and the active development of new arts and inventions, a system whose ultimate goal would be the production of practical knowledge for “the use and benefit of men” and the relief of the human condition.

At the same time that he was founding and promoting this new project for the advancement of learning, Bacon was also moving up the ladder of state service. His career aspirations had been largely disappointed under Elizabeth I, but with the ascension of James his political fortunes rose. Knighted in 1603, he was then steadily promoted to a series of offices, including Solicitor General (1607), Attorney General (1613), and eventually Lord Chancellor (1618). While serving as Chancellor, he was indicted on charges of bribery and forced to leave public office. He then retired to his estate where he devoted himself full time to his continuing literary, scientific, and philosophical work. He died in 1626, leaving behind a cultural legacy that, for better or worse, includes most of the foundation for the triumph of technology and for the modern world as we currently know it.

 

Francis Bacon Quotes

 
 

• A bachelor’s life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner. – Francis Bacon

 

• A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. – Francis Bacon

 

• A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it. – Francis Bacon

 

• A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. – Francis Bacon

 

• A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. – Francis Bacon

 

• Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse. – Francis Bacon

 

• For my name and memory I leave to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages. – Francis Bacon

 

• Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Friends are thieves of time. – Francis Bacon

 

• Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires. – 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

 

• God’s first creature, which was light. – Francis Bacon

 

• Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again. – 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

 

• He that hath knowledge spareth his words. – 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

 

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

 

• Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death. – 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

 

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

 

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

 

• A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. – Francis Bacon

 

• Acorns were good until bread was found. – 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

 

• If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world. – 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

 

• If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral. – 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

 

• It is impossible to love and to be wise. – Francis Bacon

 

• It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about. – Francis Bacon

 

• It is natural to die as to be born. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue. – Francis Bacon

 

• Knowledge and human power are synonymous. – Francis Bacon

 

• Knowledge is power. – Francis Bacon

 

• Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance. – Francis Bacon

 

• Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy. – Francis Bacon

 

• Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use. – Francis Bacon

 

• Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. – Francis Bacon

 

• Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time. – Francis Bacon

 

• As the births of living creatures are at first ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time. – Francis Bacon

 

• Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

• The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding. – Francis Bacon

 

• The way of fortune is like the milky way 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

 

• The worst men often give the best advice. – Francis Bacon

 

• The worst solitude is to have no real friendships. – 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

 

• There is 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

 

• There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self. – Francis Bacon

 

• There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying. – Francis Bacon

 

• There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. – Francis Bacon

 

• There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little. – Francis Bacon

 

• Therefore if a man looks sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils. – Francis Bacon

 

• Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. – Francis Bacon

 

• Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion. – 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

 

• Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible. – Francis Bacon

 

• Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. – Francis Bacon

 

• Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. – Francis Bacon

 

• Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice. – Francis Bacon

 

• Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. – Francis Bacon

 

• Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety. – 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

 

• Opportunity makes a thief. – Francis Bacon

 

• People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can’t fool the neighbors. – Francis Bacon

 

• People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom. – Francis Bacon

 

• Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority. – Francis Bacon

 

• Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set. – Francis Bacon

 

• We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. – Francis Bacon

 

• We cannot command Nature except by obeying her. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Whoever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul. – Francis Bacon

 

• Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much. – Francis Bacon

 

• Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god. – Francis Bacon

 

• Wise men make more opportunities than they find. – Francis Bacon

 

• Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business. – Francis Bacon

 

• Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory. – Francis Bacon

 

• Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes. – Francis Bacon

 

• Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. – Francis Bacon

 

• Rebellions of the belly are the worst. – 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

 

• Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress. – Francis Bacon

 

• Science is but an image of the truth. – 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

 

• By indignities men come to dignities. – Francis Bacon

 

• Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men. – Francis Bacon

 

• Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter. – Francis Bacon

 

• Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom. – Francis Bacon

 

• Silence is the virtue of fools. – Francis Bacon

 

• Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. – Francis Bacon

 

• Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. – Francis Bacon

 

• Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience. – Francis Bacon

 

• Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability. – Francis Bacon

 

• The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. – Francis Bacon

 

• The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. – Francis Bacon

 

• The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall. – Francis Bacon

 

• The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• The great end of life is not knowledge but action. – Francis Bacon

 

• The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. – Francis Bacon

 

• The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears. – Francis Bacon

 

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

 

• The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. – Francis Bacon

 

• The place of justice is a hallowed place. – Francis Bacon

 

• The remedy is worse than the disease. – Francis Bacon

 

• Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable. – 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

 

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