Francis Bacon Quotes
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There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.
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Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
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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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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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I always think of myself not so much as a painter but as a medium for accident and chance.
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The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
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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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Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.
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Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts.
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There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious.
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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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…it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives…
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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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The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
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The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
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To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.
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Dreams, and predictions of astrology....ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside.
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In all superstition wise men follow fools.
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It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!
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Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
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The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
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Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.
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No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed.
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The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.