FRANCIS BACON QUOTES
English philosopher (1561-1626)
A man would die, though he were neither valiant nor miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft over and over.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Ambition is like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous.
SIR FRANCIS BACON
"Of Ambition" Essays
Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Revenge," Essays
But as Cicero, when he setteth down an idea of a perfect orator, doth not mean that every pleader should be such; and so likewise, when a prince or a courtier hath been described by such as have handled those subjects, the mould hath used to be made according to the perfection of the art, and not according to common practice: so I understand it, that it ought to be done in the description of a politic man, I mean politic for his own fortune.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.
FRANCIS BACON, Exempla Antithetorum
He that hath a satirical vein, as maketh others afraid of his wit, so he need be afraid of others' memory.
FRANCIS BACON
attributed, Day's Collacon
In charity there is no excess.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," Essays
It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honor amends. For honor is, or should be, the place of virtue; and as in nature, things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding star; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor, fairly and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them, when they look not for it, than exclude them, when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible, or too remembering, of thy place in conversation, and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place, he is another man.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Great Place", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Studies," Essays
Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
FRANCIS BACON
De Augmentis Scientiarum
So in most things men are ready to abuse themselves in thinking the greatest means to be best, when it should be the fittest.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness in Nature," Essays
The example of God, teacheth the lesson truly.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness Of Nature", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
This variable composition of man’s body hath made it as an instrument easy to distemper; and, therefore, the poets did well to conjoin music and medicine in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to tune this curious harp of man’s body and to reduce it to harmony.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education, in the elder, a part of experience.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Travel", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Truth," Essays
Who then to frail mortality shall trust
But limns the water, or but writes in dust.
FRANCIS BACON
The World
Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali, are many times unfortunate. And whereas they have, all their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their self-wisdom, to have pinioned.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Wisdom For A Man's Self", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays