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Francis Bacon

157 quotes

“The greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a tarrasse, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause; for so he saith, "Knowledge bloweth up, but charity buildeth up".”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The use of this feigned history hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the world being in proportion inferior to the soul; by reason whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can be found in the nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical: because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence: because true history representeth actions and events more ordinary, and less interchanged, therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness, and more unexpected and alternative variations: so as it appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs of nature, which they term fortune, seemeth to me... in particularities of physical causes more real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato; whereof both intermingled final causes, the one as a part of theology, and the other as a part of logic, which were the favourite studies respectively of both those persons. Not because those final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired, being kept within their own province; but because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that tract.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Touching the secrets of the heart and the successions of time, doth make a just and sound difference between the manner of the exposition of the Scriptures and all other books. For it is an excellent observation which hath been made upon the answers of our Saviour Christ to many of the questions which were propounded to Him, how that they are impertinent to the state of the question demanded: the reason whereof is, because not being like man, which knows man's thoughts by his words, but knowing man's thoughts immediately, He never answered their words, but their thoughts. Much in the like manner it is with the Scriptures, which being written to the thoughts of men, and to the succession of all ages, with a foresight of all heresies, contradictions, differing estates of the Church, yea, and particularly of the elect, are not to be interpreted only according to the latitude of the proper sense of the place, and respectively towards that present occasion whereupon the words were uttered, or in precise congruity or contexture with the words before or after, or in contemplation of the principal scope of the place; but have in themselves, not only totally or collectively, but distributively in clauses and words, infinite springs and streams of doctrine to water the Church in every part. And therefore as the literal sense is, as it were, the main stream or river, so the moral sense chiefly, and sometimes the allegorical or typical, are they whereof the Church hath most use; not that I wish men to be bold in allegories, or indulgent or light in allusions: but that I do much condemn that interpretation of the Scripture which is only after the manner as men use to interpret a profane book.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far.... Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it 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 (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For everyone (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature, owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like. So that the spirit of man (according as it is meted out to different individuals) is in fact a thing variable and full of perturbation, and governed as it were by chance. Whence it was well observed by Heraclitus that men look for sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on "before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: —"Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;" clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. 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 a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory whole, as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested. Therefore from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as has never yet been made), much may be hoped.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[N]ot only must we seek the measure of motions and actions by themselves, but much more in comparison; for this is of excellent use and very general application. Now we find that the flash of a gun is seen sooner than its report is heard... and this is owing it seems to the motion of light being more rapid than that of sound. We find to that visible images are received by the sight faster than they are dismissed; thus the strings of the violin, when struck by the finger, are to appearance doubled and tripled, because the new image is received before the old one is gone; which is also why the reason why rings being spun round look like globes, and a lighted torch, carried hastily at night, seems to have a tail. And it was upon this inequality of motions in point of velocity that Galileo built his theory of flux and reflux of the sea; supposing that the earth revolved faster than the water could follow; and that the water was therefore first gathered in a heap and then fell down, as we see in a basin of water moved quickly. But this he devised upon an assumption which cannot be allowed, viz. that the earth moves; and also without being well informed as to the sexhorary motion of the tide.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Come home to men's business and bosoms.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Virtue is like precious odours,--most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Men in great place are thrice servants,--servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The remedy is worse than the disease.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination, their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Virtue is like a rich stone,--best plain set.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“God Almighty first planted a garden.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Knowledge is power.--Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi." These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient _ordine retrogrado_, by a computation backward from ourselves.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source