FRANCIS BACON QUOTES VI

English philosopher (1561-1626)

They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: God


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


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


Art is man added to Nature.

FRANCIS BACON

Descriptio Globi Intellectus

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Silence is the virtue of fools.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum

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It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: life


A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: opportunity


Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Nature in Men," Essays

Tags: nature


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

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Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Studies," Essays

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In charity there is no excess.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," Essays

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Discretion of speech, is more than eloquence.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Discourse," Essays


No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Truth," Essays

Tags: truth


So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Ambition," Essays

Tags: ambition


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


Ambition is like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous.

SIR FRANCIS BACON

"Of Ambition" Essays

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The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

FRANCIS BACON, Novum Organum

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But above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth most, that a nation do profess arms, as their principal honor, study, and occupation. For the things which we formerly have spoken of, are but habilitations towards arms; and what is habilitation without intention and act? Romulus, after his death (as they report or feign), sent a present to the Romans, that above all, they should intend arms; and then they should prove the greatest empire of the world. The fabric of the state of Sparta was wholly (though not wisely) framed and composed, to that scope and end. The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash. The Gauls, Germans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others, had it for a time. The Turks have it at this day, though in great declination. Of Christian Europe, they that have it are, in effect, only the Spaniards. But it is so plain, that every man profiteth in that, he most intendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon. It is enough to point at it; that no nation which doth not directly profess arms, may look to have greatness fall into their mouths. And on the other side, it is a most certain oracle of time, that those states that continue long in that profession (as the Romans and Turks principally have done) do wonders. And those that have professed arms but for an age, have, notwithstanding, commonly attained that greatness, in that age, which maintained them long after, when their profession and exercise of arms hath grown to decay.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of the True Greatness Of Kingdoms And Estates", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: age


For justs, and tourneys, and barriers; the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts: as lions, bears, camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance; or in the bravery of their liveries; or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armor. But enough of these toys.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Masques And Triumphs", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: toys