FRANCIS BACON QUOTES VIII

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


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


Death hath this also; that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: death


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


Since there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: lending


Silence is the virtue of fools.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum

Tags: silence


Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum

Tags: wealth


Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum


If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: doubt


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


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

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Studies," Essays

Tags: books


Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Delays," Essays

Tags: fortune


In charity there is no excess.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," Essays

Tags: charity


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


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


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

Tags: understanding