Francis Bacon Quotes

563 Sourced Quotes

It is seldom that beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue.

Francis Bacon
Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.

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

Francis Bacon
The flood of grief decreaseth when it can swell no longer.

Francis Bacon
The winning of honor, is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth, without disadvantage.

Francis Bacon
I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.

Francis Bacon
It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.

Francis Bacon
He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry? 'A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.'

Francis Bacon
A good name is like a precious ointment; it filleth all around about, and will not easily away; for the odors of ointments are more durable than those of flowers.

Francis Bacon
It is scarce possible at once to admire and excel an author, as water rises no higher than the reservoir it falls from.

Francis Bacon
Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Francis Bacon
It is well to observe the force and virtue and consequence of discoveries, and these are to be seen nowhere more conspicuously than in those three which were unknown to the ancients, and of which the origins, though recent, are obscure and inglorious; namely, printing, gunpowder, and the mariner's needle [compass]…these three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world.

Francis Bacon
Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences; whence it is bad in council though good in execution. The right use of the bold, therefore, is, that they never command in chief, but serve as seconds under the direction of others. For in council it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them unless they be very great.

Francis Bacon
For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself.

Francis Bacon
For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.

Francis Bacon
Self-respect is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.

Francis Bacon
The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse.

Francis Bacon
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

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

Francis Bacon
What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

Francis Bacon
As those wines which flow from the first treading of the grape are sweeter and better than those forced out by the press, which gives them the roughness of the husk and stone, so are those doctrines best and sweetest which flow from a gentle crush of the scriptures, and are not wrung into controversies and commonplaces.

Francis Bacon
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Francis Bacon
But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this — that men despair and think things impossible.

Francis Bacon
A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune.

Francis Bacon
When things are come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity.

Francis Bacon
There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names — calling the first class, Idols of the Tribe ; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater.

Francis Bacon
The honorablest part of talk is to give the occasion, and again to moderate and pass to somewhat else; for then a man leads the dance.

Francis Bacon
In the youth of a state arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise.

Francis Bacon
A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return.

Francis Bacon
Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and aid authors to read.

Francis Bacon