The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition) Quotes

“The general root of superstition : namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition)

“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition)

“For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition)

“Aristippus said: That those that studied particular sciences, and neglected philosophy, were like Penelope's wooers, that made love to the waiting women.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition)

“I would by all means have men beware, lest Aesop's pretty fable of the fly that sate on the pole of a chariot at the Olympic races and said, 'What a dust do I raise,' be verified in them. For so it is that some small observation, and that disturbed sometimes by the instrument, sometimes by the eye, sometimes by the calculation, and which may be owing to some real change in the sky, raises new skies and new spheres and circles.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon (Unexpurgated Edition)

“MEN fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak.”
― Francis Bacon, Delphi Collected Works of Francis Bacon (Illustrated)

“The honorablest part of talk, is to give the occasion; and again to moderate, and pass to somewhat else; for then a man leads the dance.”
― Francis Bacon, Delphi Collected Works of Francis Bacon (Illustrated)