Francis Bacon

Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

— Francis Bacon

Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.

— Francis Bacon

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

— Francis Bacon

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

— Francis Bacon

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

— Francis Bacon

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

— Francis Bacon

The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.

— Francis Bacon

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

— Francis Bacon

Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.

— Francis Bacon

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

— Francis Bacon

All colors will agree in the dark.

— Francis Bacon

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

— Francis Bacon

He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.

— Francis Bacon

I hold every man a debtor to his profession.

— Francis Bacon

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

— Francis Bacon

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

— Francis Bacon

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

— Francis Bacon

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

— Francis Bacon

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

— Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

— Francis Bacon

The mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

— Francis Bacon

A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

— Francis Bacon

Science is but an image of the truth.

— Francis Bacon

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

— Francis Bacon

Silence is the virtue of fools.

— Francis Bacon

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

— Francis Bacon

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

— Francis Bacon

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

— Francis Bacon

I would live to study, and not study to live.

— Francis Bacon

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.

— Francis Bacon

In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.

— Francis Bacon

To choose time is to save time.

— Francis Bacon

Time is the measure of business.

— Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

— Francis Bacon

Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.

— Francis Bacon

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth... and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

— Francis Bacon

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

— Francis Bacon

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

— Francis Bacon

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

— Francis Bacon

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

— Francis Bacon

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

— Francis Bacon

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

— Francis Bacon

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

— Francis Bacon

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

— Francis Bacon

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

— Francis Bacon

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public. He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question, when a man should marryA young man not yet, an elder man not at all.

— Francis Bacon

Nay, number itself in armies importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for, as Virgil saith, It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.

— Francis Bacon

Croesus said to Cambyses; That peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons.

— Francis Bacon

Ask counsel of both timesof the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.

— Francis Bacon

Young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business; Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unruly horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

— Francis Bacon

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.

— Francis Bacon

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

— Francis Bacon

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death.

— Francis Bacon

Physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humour of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease; and some are so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper; or if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either sort; and forget not to call, as well the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty.

— Francis Bacon

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. . . . Certainly, virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant, when they are incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

— Francis Bacon

When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him, but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth. And let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories.

— Francis Bacon

The winning of honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. For some in their actions do woo and affect honour and reputation, which sort of men are commonly much talked of, but inwardly little admired. And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the show of it, so as they be undervalued in opinion. . . . Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best extinguished by declaring a man's self in his ends, rather to seek merit than fame, and by attributing a man's successes, rather to divine Providence and felicity, than to his own virtue or policy.

— Francis Bacon

In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once, but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

— Francis Bacon