Bacon Francis Quotes & Sayings

Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other — Francis Bacon

No man's fortune can be an end worthy of his being. — Francis Bacon

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom. — Francis Bacon

I would by all means have men beware, lest Aesop's pretty fable of the fly that sate on the pole of a chariot at the Olympic races and said, 'What a dust do I raise,' be verified in them. For so it is that some small observation, and that disturbed sometimes by the instrument, sometimes by the eye, sometimes by the calculation, and which may be owing to some real change in the sky, raises new skies and new spheres and circles. — Francis Bacon

The images of mens wits and knowledge remain in books. They generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages — Francis Bacon

A small task if it be really daily will beat the efforts of a spasmodic Hercules. — Francis Bacon

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. — Francis Bacon

They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art. — Francis Bacon

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner. — Francis Bacon

There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise. — Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. — Francis Bacon

Men leave their riches either to their kindred or their friends, and moderate portions prosper best in both. — Francis Bacon

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave. — Francis Bacon

The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure, it's a little like making love, the physical act of love. — Francis Bacon

Leonardo did not pursue science and engineering in order to dominate nature, as Francis Bacon would advocate a century later, but always tried to learn as much as possible from nature. He was in awe of the beauty he saw in the complexity of natural forms, patterns, and processes, and aware that nature's ingenuity was far superior to human design. Accordingly, he often used natural processes and structures as models for his own designs. — Fritjof Capra

The light that a man receives by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which comes from his own understanding and judgment, which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs. — Francis Bacon

The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes the middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. — Francis Bacon

He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age. — Francis Bacon

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature; neither his understanding nor his power extends further. — Francis Bacon

As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it's true to say that the excitement and possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in the working. — Francis Bacon

Knowledge and human power are synonymous. — Francis Bacon

The eye of understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as you may see great objects through small crannies or levels, so you may see great axioms of nature through small and contemptible instances. — Francis Bacon

Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb. — Francis Bacon

A man dies as often as he loses his friends. — Francis Bacon

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
[Proposition touching Amendment of Laws] — Francis Bacon

Revenge is a kind of wild justice. — Francis Bacon

A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. — Francis Bacon

Riches are for spending. — Francis Bacon

Secrecy in suits goes a great way towards success. — Francis Bacon

I want a very ordered image, but I want it to come about by chance. — Francis Bacon

We only have our nervous system to paint. — Francis Bacon

Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason — Francis Bacon

I would like, in my arbitrary way, to bring one nearer to the actual human being. — Francis Bacon

All authority must be out of a man's self, turned ... either upon an art, or upon a man. — Francis Bacon

Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn. — Francis Bacon

There were taken apples, and ... closed up in wax ... After a month's space, the apple inclosed in was was as green and fresh as the first putting in, and the kernals continued white. The cause is, for that all exclusion of open air, which is ever predatory, maintaineth the body in its first freshness and moisture. — Francis Bacon

I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a painter was the best one to be, because my heroes were Goya and Francis Bacon. — Damien Hirst

Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion. — Francis Bacon

Why should a man be in love with his fetters, though of gold? — Francis Bacon

There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome. — Francis Bacon

People of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom drive business home to it's conclusion, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. — Francis Bacon

Some artists leave remarkable things which, a 100 years later, don't work at all. I have left my mark; my work is hung in museums, but maybe one day the Tate Gallery or the other museums will banish me to the cellar ... you never know. — Francis Bacon

Neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher science. — Francis Bacon

This book tells the story of that moment in time. It is a story of high adventure set during the age of exploration - when Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, and Captain John Smith were expanding the boundaries of the world, and Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Galileo, Descartes, Mercator, Vermeer, Harvey, and Bacon were revolutionizing human thought and expression. — Russell Shorto

It is impossible to love and be wise. — Francis Bacon

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy. — 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

Fortune makes him fool, whom she makes her darling. — Francis Bacon

The dilemma is this. In the modern world knowledge has been growing so fast and so enormously, in almost every field, that the probabilities are immensely against anybody, no matter how innately clever, being able to make a contribution in any one field unless he devotes all his time to it for years. If he tries to be the Rounded Universal Man, like Leonardo da Vinci, or to take all knowledge for his province, like Francis Bacon, he is most likely to become a mere dilettante and dabbler. But if he becomes too specialized, he is apt to become narrow and lopsided, ignorant on every subject but his own, and perhaps dull and sterile even on that because he lacks perspective and vision and has missed the cross-fertilization of ideas that can come from knowing something of other subjects. — Henry Hazlitt

For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages. — Francis Bacon

Above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis, when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy. — Francis Bacon

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

For the unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself to account, nor the pleasure of that suavissima vita, indies sentire se fieri meliorem. — Francis Bacon

Custom is the principle magistrate of man's life. — Francis Bacon

If my people look as if they're in a dreadful fix, it's because I can't get them out of a technical dilemma. — Francis Bacon

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. — Francis Bacon

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships. — Francis Bacon

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

Aristippus said: That those that studied particular sciences, and neglected philosophy, were like Penelope's wooers, that made love to the waiting women. — Francis Bacon

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. -Francis Bacon — Francis Bacon

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. — Francis Bacon

There are Idols which we call Idols of the Market. For Men associate by Discourse, and a false and improper Imposition of Words strangely possesses the Understanding, for Words absolutely force the Understanding, and put all Things into Confusion. — Francis Bacon

Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees ... — Francis Bacon

Science is but an image of the truth. — Francis Bacon

Boldness is a child of ignorance — Francis Bacon

The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed, ... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God. — Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. — Francis Bacon

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

The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. — Francis Bacon

I think of myself as a kind of pulverizing machine into which everything I look at and feel is fed. I believe that I am different from the mixed-media jackdaws who use photographs etc. more or less literally. — Francis Bacon

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate. — Francis Bacon

Journeys at youth are part of the education; but at maturity, are part of the experience. — Francis Bacon

I work for posterity, these things requiring ages for their accomplishment. — Francis Bacon

There is no doubt but men of genius and leisure may carry our method to greater perfection, but, having had long experience, we have found none equal to it for the commodiousness it affords in working with the Understanding. — Francis Bacon

Nor is mine a trumpet which summons and excites men to cut each other to pieces with mutual contradictions, or to quarrel and fight with one another; but rather to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of Things — Francis Bacon

Cure the disease and kill the patient. — Francis Bacon

Various different people have inspired me throughout my career. From Francis Bacon to Vassareli, Coco Chanel to Christian Dior, Cecil Beaton, musicians, architects ... the list is endless. — Dries Van Noten

Again there is another great and powerful cause why the sciences have made but little progress; which is this. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. — Francis Bacon

Moreover, the works already known are due to chance and experiment rather than to sciences; for the sciences we now possess are merely systems for the nice ordering and setting forth of things already invented; not methods of invention or directions for new works. — Francis Bacon

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

Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. — Francis Bacon

Once upon a time, there was a man who was convinced that he possessed a Great Idea. Indeed, as the man thought upon the Great Idea more and more, he realized that it was not just a great idea, but the most wonderful idea ever. The Great Idea would unravel the mysteries of the universe, supersede the authority of the corrupt and error-ridden Establishment, confer nigh-magical powers upon its wielders, feed the hungry, heal the sick, make the whole world a better place, etc. etc. etc.
The man was Francis Bacon, his Great Idea was the scientific method, and he was the only crackpot in all history to claim that level of benefit to humanity and turn out to be completely right. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. — Francis Bacon

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. — Francis Bacon

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends — Francis Bacon

There are many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances. — Francis Bacon

If you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not. — Francis Bacon

Books speak plain when counselors blanch. — Francis Bacon

To spend too much time in them [studying] is sloth, to use them too much for ornament is affectation, to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor* of a scholar ... . — Francis Bacon

We must see whether the same clock with weights will go faster at the top of a mountain or at the bottom of a mine; it is probable, if the pull of the weights decreases on the mountain and increases in the mine, that the earth has real attraction. — Francis Bacon

It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands — Francis Bacon

If you want to convey fact, this can only ever be done through a form of distortion. You must distort to transform what is called appearance into image. — Francis Bacon

In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some one whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance. — Francis Bacon

Truth is a naked and open daylight — Francis Bacon

An artist must learn to be nourished by his passions and by his despairs, — Francis Bacon

Great riches have sold more men than they have bought. — Francis Bacon

All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light. — Francis Bacon

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors. — Francis Bacon

It is good discretion not make too much of any man at the first; because one cannot hold out that proportion. — Francis Bacon

Medicine is a science which hath been (as we have said) more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than advanced: the labour having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in progression. For I find much iteration, but small addition. It considereth causes of diseases, with the occasions or impulsions; the diseases themselves, with the accidents; and the cures, with the preservation. — Francis Bacon