Francis Bacon quotes

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

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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.
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By indignities men come to dignities.

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For also knowledge itself is power.

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Friends are thieves of time.

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God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleas
ures.
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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, bu
ilds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
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He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

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In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
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It is impossible to love and to be wise.

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Knowledge is power.
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Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
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The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears.
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The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when
it misses.
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A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bri
ngeth men's minds about to religion.
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A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

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A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

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A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

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A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him
open.
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A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

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Acorns were good until bread was found.

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Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
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Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually
escaped the shipwreck of time.
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As the births of living creatures are at first ill-shapen, so are all innovation
s, which are the births of time.
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Atheism is rather in the life than in the heart of man.

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Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

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But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for Go
d and angels to be lookers on.
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Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded f
rom the unmarried, or childless men.
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Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

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Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
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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.
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Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns thing
s weighty and solid.
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Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercours
e.
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For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nati
ons and the next ages.
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Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reas
on.
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Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the pri
ce will fall.
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Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

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God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

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God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on th
is side of the grave.
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God's first creature, which was light.

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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.
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He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impe
diments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
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He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the great
est innovator.
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Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

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Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred
before uniformity.
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I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.
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I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcor
an, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
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I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
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If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the

world.
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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.
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If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will con
tent to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
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If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

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If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.
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Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of hu
mor to console him for what he is.
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In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he
is superior.
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It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power ove
r others, and to lose power over a man's self.
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It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

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It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one

is as painful as the other.
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It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and su

rely the fairer way is not much about.
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It is natural to die as to be born.

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Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is n
o worse torture than that of laws.
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Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and mor
e advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and prope
r virtue.
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Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

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Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

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Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

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Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use
.
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Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in c
hildren is increased by tales, so is the other.
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Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

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Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studi
es themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded
in by experience.
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Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

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Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

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Never exaggerate your faults. Your friends will attend to that.

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Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

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Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.
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Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the ch
aracter of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing
.
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Opportunity makes a thief.

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People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the nei
ghbors.
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People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their l

earning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.
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Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in th
e memory.
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Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many c
omforts and hopes.
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Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of th

e New.
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Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but t
o weigh and consider.
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Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

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Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the mo
re ought law to weed it out.
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Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

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Science is but an image of the truth.

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Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied
or its loss will not be felt.
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Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

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Silence is the virtue of fools.

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Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to
God.
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Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed a
nd digested.
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Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

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Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

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The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

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The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we h

ate our neighbors.
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The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge
caused men to fall.
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The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
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The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.
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The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

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The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

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The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
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The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil
.
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The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of
Job than the felicities of Solomon.
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The place of justice is a hallowed place.

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The remedy is worse than the disease.

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The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the sense
s and understanding.
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The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small s
tars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little a
nd scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fort
unate.
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The worst men often give the best advice.
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The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.

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There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the h
appiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the
greatest fool.
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There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation wh
at he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve hea
lth.
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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 flatte
rer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self.
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There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that whi
ch is lost by not trying.
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There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
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There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
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Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for thoug
h she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
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They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they see nothing but s
ea.
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They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing
but sea.
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They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
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Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better
designedly.
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This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which
otherwise would heal and do well.
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Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of exp
erience.
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Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

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Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an e
rror, lest you get your brains kicked out.
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Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

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Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

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Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

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We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not wh
at they ought to do.
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We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

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What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
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When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forg
ive the loss of their prerogative.
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Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

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Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

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Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

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With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to b
e a fraud and a half.
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Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurse
s.
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Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly
the most valuable.
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Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for c
ounsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
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