Francis Bacon > Quotes

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”
― Francis Bacon, The Essays

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.”
― Francis Bacon

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
― Francis Bacon

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
― Francis Bacon

“Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he doth not.”
― 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

“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.”
― Francis Bacon

“Wonder is the seed of knowledge”
― Francis Bacon

“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted ...but to weigh and consider.”
― Francis Bacon

“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
― Francis Bacon

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand--and melting like a snowflake...”
― Francis Bacon

“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
― Francis Bacon

“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”
― Francis Bacon

“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
― Francis Bacon

“the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.”
― Francis Bacon

“Ipsa scientia potestas est.
(Knowledge itself is power.)”
― Francis Bacon

“Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.”
― Francis Bacon

“It is impossible to love and be wise.”
― Francis Bacon

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

“Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends”
― Francis Bacon

“The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.”
― Francis Bacon

“A little science estranges a man from God. A lot of science brings him back.”
― Francis Bacon

“If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted”
― Francis Bacon

“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
― Francis Bacon

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

“There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.”
― Francis Bacon

“The remedy is worse than the disease.”
― Francis Bacon

“The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.”
― Francis Bacon

“God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.”
― Francis Bacon

“Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity.”
― Francis Bacon

“Knowledge is power.”
― Francis Bacon

“There are two ways of spreading light..to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
― Francis Bacon

“The only really interesting thing is
what happens between two people in a room.”
― Francis Bacon

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
― Francis Bacon

“They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.”
― Francis Bacon

“Silence is the virtue of fools.”
― Francis Bacon

“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.”
― Francis Bacon

“People prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.”
― Francis Bacon

“Age appears to be best in four things; old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”
― Francis Bacon

“Money is a great servant but a bad master.”
― 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

“A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time. ”
― Francis Bacon

“For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble.”
― Francis Bacon

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

“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”
― Francis Bacon

“To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works, divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.”
― Francis Bacon, The Advancement Of Learning

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested.”
― Francis Bacon

“The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.”
― Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

“For no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come.”
― Francis Bacon

“Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.”
― Francis Bacon