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Francis Bacon [1561-1626] English

Rank: 4
Philosopher, Former Lord Chancellor

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England.

Men, Wisdom, Nature, Age, Good, Knowledge, Anger, Art, Beauty, Best, Experience, God, Change, Fear, Imagination, Power, Religion, Strength, Business, Death, Education, Friendship, Gardening, Happiness, Hope, Humor, Intelligence, Learning, Life, Patience, Science, Time, Travel, Trust, Truth, Women

Quote	Tags	Rank
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.		101
Knowledge is power.	Knowledge, Power	102
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.	Age, Best, Trust	103
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.	Wisdom	104
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.	Beauty, Best	105
A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.	Life	106
Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.	Strength	107
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.	Good	108
The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.	Art, Good	109
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.	Men, Wisdom	110
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.		111
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.		112
The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies than in any constant belief.	Religion	113
If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.	Science	114
We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.	Nature	115
The way of fortune is like the milkyway 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.	Men	116
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.		117
I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.	Age	118
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.	Experience	119
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.	Wisdom	120
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.	Good, Hope	121
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.		122
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.	Anger	123
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.	Education, Experience, Travel	124
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.	Age, Men, Women	125
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.	Men, Religion	126
Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.	God	201
The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.		202
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.		203
Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.	Experience, Nature	204
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.		205
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.	Humor, Imagination	206
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.	God	207
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.		208
It is impossible to love and to be wise.	Wisdom	209
When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.		210
Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.	Friendship	211
Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.	Art	212
Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.	Nature	213
The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.		214
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.	Truth	215
The worst men often give the best advice.	Best	216
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.	Art	217
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.		218
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.		219
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.	Fear	220
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.		221
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.		222
Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.	Patience	223
God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.	God	224
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.	Happiness, Wisdom	225
Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.		226
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.	Nature	301
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.	Anger	302
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.	Death, Fear	303
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.	Power	304
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.		305
Friends are thieves of time.	Time	306
It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.		307
They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.		308
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.		309
If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.		310
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.	Beauty	311
The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.		312
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.	Business	313
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.		314
The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.	Knowledge	315
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.	Change	316
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.		317
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.		318
Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.		319
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.	Knowledge	320
As the births of living creatures are at first ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time.		321
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.		322
A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.		323
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.		324
Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.		325
Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.		326
Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.	Age	401
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.	Nature	402
Opportunity makes a thief.		403
Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.		404
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.		405
The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.		406
By indignities men come to dignities.	Men	407
Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.		408
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.		409
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.		410
People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.		411
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.	Change	412
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.	Beauty	413
Acorns were good until bread was found.	Good	414
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.		415
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.		416
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.		417
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.		418
People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.	Learning	419
Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.		420
God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.	Intelligence	421
Knowledge and human power are synonymous.	Knowledge	422
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.		423
God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.	Gardening	424
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.		425
No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic, and certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.		426
Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.	Men	501
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.	Imagination	502
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.		503
Silence is the virtue of fools.		504
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.		505
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.		506
This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.		507
Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.		508
Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.	Strength	509
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.		510
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.		511
We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.		512
Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.		513
But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.		514
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.		515
There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.		516
There is a 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.	Wisdom	517
He that hath knowledge spareth his words.		518
Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.		519
Rebellions of the belly are the worst.		520
The remedy is worse than the disease.		521
The place of justice is a hallowed place.		522
God's first creature, which was light.		523
I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.		524
For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.		525
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.		526
Science is but an image of the truth.		601
Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.		602
It is natural to die as to be born.		603
Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.		604
Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.		605
Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.		606
Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns: children, women, old folks, sick folks.	Anger	607
It is a true rule that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque or with an inward and secret contempt.		608

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