Francis Bacon Quotes
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Aristotle… a mere bond-servant to his logic, thereby rendering it contentious and well nigh useless.
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Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.
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Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.
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He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
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There is a cunning which we in England call 'the turning of the cat in the pan;' which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
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Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.
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The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
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Deformed persons commonly take revenge on nature.
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It cannot be that axioms established by argumentation should avail for the discovery of new works, since the subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily discover the way to new particulars, and thus render sciences active.
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For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble.
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A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.
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The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God.
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There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome.
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I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail of the human presence and memory trace of past events, as the snail leaves its slime.
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Journeys at youth are part of the education; but at maturity, are part of the experience.
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But the best demonstration by far is experience, if it go not beyond the actual experiment.
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It was a high speech of Seneca that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
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The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one.
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Nothing is terrible except fear itself.
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Nothing is to be feared but fear.
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Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like that, which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore measure not dispatch, by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business.
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It is rightly laid down that 'true knowledge is knowledge by causes'. Also the establishment of four causes is not bad: material, formal, efficient and final.
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Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back.
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To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.