Quotes by
Francis Bacon |
1561-1626 , English philosopher
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. He is remembered in literary terms for the sharp worldly wisdom of a few dozen essays; in constitutional history for his power as a speaker in Parliament and in famous trials and as James I’s lord chancellor; and intellectually as a man who claimed all knowledge as his province.
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Quotations
| • | Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. 13 |
| • | I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. 10 |
| • | Knowledge is power. 9 |
| • | Money is a good servant but a bad master. 9 |
| • | Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. 9 |
| • | Cure the disease and kill the patient. 8 |
| • | The worst men often give the best advice. 7 |
| • | If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible. 6 |
| • | If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. 6 |
| • | Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true. 6 |
| • | The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. 6 |
| • | The remedy is worse than the disease. 6 |
| • | Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home. 5 |
| • | Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. 5 |
| • | There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying. 5 |
| • | The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses. 5 |
| • | A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time. 5 |
| • | It is impossible to love and be wise. 5 |
| • | A small task if it be really daily will beat the efforts of a spasmodic Hercules. 5 |
| • | Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. 5 |
| • | Silence is the virtue of a fool. 4 |
| • | A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds. 4 |
| • | In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. 4 |
| • | Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses. 4 |
| • | Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read. 4 |
| • | The age of antiquity is the youth of the world. 3 |
| • | But men must know that in this theater of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. 3 |
| • | Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted. 3 |
| • | Money is like muck, not good except it be spread. 3 |
| • | There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. 3 |
| • | He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many. 3 |
| • | States as great engines move slowly. 2 |
| • | “What is truth?” said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. 2 |
| • | Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. 2 |
| • | Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands. 2 |
| • | Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. 2 |
| • | Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. 2 |
| • | In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior. 2 |
| • | Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study. 2 |
| • | Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way. 2 |
| • | A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner. 2 |
| • | If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. 2 |
| • | Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul. 2 |
| • | Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. 2 |
| • | Journeys at youth are part of the education; but at maturity, are part of the experience. 2 |
| • | We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps. 2 |
| • | Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes. 2 |
| • | The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body and reduce it to harmony. |
| • | To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. |
| • | Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority. |
| • | A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint. |
| • | All colours will agree in the dark. |
| • | Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake. |
