English philosopher (1561-1626)
Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt that, if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as breach of unity.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
There is in man's nature a secret inclination and motion towards love of others, which, if it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread itself towards many, and maketh men become humane and charitable, as it is seen sometimes in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature; and ... mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but embaseth it.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Death hath this also; that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a Siren, sometimes like a Fury.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Nature in Men," 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
Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.
FRANCIS BACON
De Augmentis Scientiarum
States as great engines move slowly.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Revenge," Essays
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
Art is man added to Nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Descriptio Globi Intellectus