Francis Bacon Quotes
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Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs.
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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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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.
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He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public. He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question, when a man should marry. A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.
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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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In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
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The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
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Observation and experiment for gathering material, induction and deduction for elaborating it: these are are only good intellectual tools.
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The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
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A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune.
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A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
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None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.
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They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art.
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Great changes are easier than small ones.
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Brutes by their natural instinct have produced many discoveries, whereas men by discussion and the conclusions of reason have given birth to few or none.
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There are many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances.
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A man finds himself seven years older the day after his marriage.
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The greatest trust, between man and man, is the trust of giving counsel. For in other confidences, men commit the parts of life; their lands, their goods, their children, their credit, some particular affair; but to such as they make their counsellors, they commit the whole: by how much the more, they are obliged to all faith and integrity.
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If my people look as if they're in a dreadful fix, it's because I can't get them out of a technical dilemma.
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Come home to men's business and bosoms.
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Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
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Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.
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It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth . . . and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.
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Friends are thieves of time.