FRANCIS BACON QUOTES VI

English philosopher (1561-1626)

Nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as breach of unity.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: church


Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: revenge


It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: lying


Good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: thought


If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins them.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: courtesy


Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: Truth


Clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature; and ... mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but embaseth it.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: honesty


In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: revenge


The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a Siren, sometimes like a Fury.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: love


Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Nature in Men," Essays

Tags: nature


States as great engines move slowly.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning


Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.

FRANCIS BACON, Exempla Antithetorum

Tags: truth


Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Seditions and Troubles," Essays

Tags: money


The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.

FRANCIS BACON

Novum Organum

Tags: opinion


If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Fortune," Essays

Tags: fortune


Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: history


Discretion of speech, is more than eloquence.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Discourse," Essays


Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.

FRANCIS BACON

"An Essay on Death," The Remaines of the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam (Bacon's authorship of this essay has been disputed by some historians.)

Tags: death


We cannot command nature except by obeying her.

FRANCIS BACON

Novum Organum

Tags: nature


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.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Youth and Age", Essays; or Counsels Civil and Moral

Tags: youth