Francis Bacon Quotes
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A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.
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To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.
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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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The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
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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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It is a great happiness when men's professions and their inclinations accord.
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Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
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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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Hope is the most beneficial of all the affections, and doth much to the prolongation of life.
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Art is man added to Nature.
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Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men, is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely.
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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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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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God's first creature, which was light.
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A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.
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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.
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Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
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For man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection: and they be three wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever: wisdom of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and wisdom of state.
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When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.
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Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.
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But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men.
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Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.
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Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.