Francis Bacon Quotes
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It is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obsesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into innumerable and inane controversies and fancies.
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Always let losers have their words.
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Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.
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The bee enclosed and through the amber shown Seems buried in the juice which was his own.
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But we may go further, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends; without which the world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections, is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.
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Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.
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It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
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The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain. Therefore it is that we cannot conceive of any end or limit to the world, but always as of necessity it occurs to us that there is something beyond... But he is no less an unskilled and shallow philosopher who seeks causes of that which is most general, than he who in things subordinate and subaltern omits to do so.
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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.
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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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Nothing opens the heart like a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes...and whatever lies upon the heart.
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To know truly is to know by causes.
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Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.
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Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending the mind.
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I think I tend to destroy the better paintings, or those that have been better to a certain extent. I try and take them further, and they lose all their qualities, and they lose everything. I think I would say that I destroy all the better paintings.
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The worst men often give the best advice.
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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 world's a bubble, and the life of man Less than a span.
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There is superstition in avoiding superstition.
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I always think of myself not so much as a painter but as a medium for accident and chance.
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Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
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Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn.
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Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.
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People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.