Francis Bacon Quotes
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I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto.
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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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A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.
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Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.
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It is a great happiness when men's professions and their inclinations accord.
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People prefer to believe what they want to be true.
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To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.
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The images of mens wits and knowledge remain in books. They generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages.
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Mysteries are due to secrecy.
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Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind.
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Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
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Art is man added to Nature.
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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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To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works, divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.
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The human understanding of its own nature is prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds.
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Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
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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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The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet it either does not observe them or it despises them, or it gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
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The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
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Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.
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God's first creature, which was light.
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To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: 'Be angry, but sin not.' 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.'
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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.
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Money is a great servant but a bad master.