100 Quotes by Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, the English philosopher, statesman, and father of empiricism, reshaped the intellectual landscape of the early modern era. Rejecting scholasticism's reliance on deductive reasoning, Bacon championed the scientific method, emphasizing empirical observation, experimentation, and inductive reasoning. His groundbreaking work "Novum Organum" advocated for a new approach to acquiring knowledge through systematic investigation of the natural world. Bacon's influential essays delved into a wide range of topics, from truth and friendship to studies of human nature. As a statesman, he held influential positions, including serving as Lord Chancellor of England, though his political career ended in scandal. Despite controversies, Bacon's impact on the philosophy of science and his call for the advancement of knowledge through a methodical and evidence-based approach continue to shape the foundation of modern scientific inquiry.
Francis Bacon Quotes
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea. (Meaning)
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. (Quote Meaning)
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. (Meaning)
Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall. (Quote Meaning)
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. (Meaning)
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. (Quote Meaning)
If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. (Meaning)
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion. (Quote Meaning)
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. (Meaning)
Silence is the virtue of fools. (Quote Meaning)
Knowledge is power. (Meaning)
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
It's not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.
Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.
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.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.
Life is a marshmallow, easy to chew but hard to swallow.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. (Quote Meaning)
Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind
For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
"A little science estranges a man from God;
a lot of science brings him back."
You cannot teach a child to take care of himself unless you will let him try to take care of himself. He will make mistakes and out of these mistakes will come his wisdom.
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Money is a great servant but a bad master.
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Meaning)
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. (Quote Meaning)
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. (Meaning)
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.
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. (Quote Meaning)
I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.
The wonder of a single snowflake outweighs the wisdom of a million meteorologists.
They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.
The worst men often give the best advice.
It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.
Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. (Meaning)
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior. (Quote Meaning)
Wonder is the seed of knowledge
Nothing opens the heart like a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes...and whatever lies upon the heart.
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses. (Meaning)
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.
Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.
We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.
People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.
Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority.
A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.
In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps.
The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.
People prefer to believe what they want to be true.
Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?
Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.
The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.
The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
[Science is] the labor and handicraft of the mind.
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
By far the best proof is experience.
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel nor man come in danger by it.
Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom. (Quote Meaning)
It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.
It is impossible to love and to be wise. (Meaning)
Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.
Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.
Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.
I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision.
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.
The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.
Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable. (Quote Meaning)
As the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time.
The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery at first it deceives, at last it betrays
Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest
When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.
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.
The partitions of knowledge are not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch not in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs.
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
Knowledge itself is power.
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.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely.
God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men.
Always let losers have their words.
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.
All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.
Journeys at youth are part of the education; but at maturity, are part of the experience.
All colours will agree in the dark.
The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one.
He that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what he can to impair another's.
To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.
Jesus would have been one of the best photographers that ever existed. He was always looking at the beauty of people souls. In fact Jesus was constantly making pictures of God in people's life by looking at their souls and exposing them to his light.
Wounds cannot be cured without searching.
The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.
Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion.
Science is but an image of the truth.
Let every student of nature take this as his rule, that whatever the mind seizes upon with particular satisfaction is to be held in suspicion.
We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.
Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn.
Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.
Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.
Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life.
O life! An age to the miserable, a moment to the happy.
The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
Opportunity makes a thief. (Meaning)
When a bee stings, she dies. She cannot sting and live. When men sting, their better selves die. Every sting kills a better instinct. Men must not turn bees and kill themselves in stinging others.
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees.
Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability. (Quote Meaning)
Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.
Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.
There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
A much talking judge is an ill-tuned cymbal.
If I sit and daydream, the images rush by like a succession of colored slides.
Hope is the most beneficial of all the affections, and doth much to the prolongation of life.
Money is a good servant, a dangerous master.
The universe must not be narrowed down to the limit of our understanding, but our understanding must be stretched and enlarged to take in the image of the universe as it is discovered.
A cat will never drown if she sees the shore.
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.
The folly of one man is the fortune of another.
He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many. (Meaning)
All bravery stands upon comparisons.
Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.
A good conscience is a continual feast.
Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.
My painting is not violent, it's life that is violent. Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves, the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. We are born with a scream; we come into life with a scream and maybe love is a mosquito net between the fear of living and the fear of death.
They that reverence to much old times are but a scorn to the new.
Nothing is to be feared but fear itself. Nothing grievous but to yield to grief.
In revenge a man is but even with his enemy; for it is a princely thing to pardon, and Solomon saith it is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression.
Money is a great treasure that only increases as you give it away.
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?.
In charity there is no excess.
Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas.
To know truly is to know by causes.
An artist must learn to be nourished by his passions and by his despairs.
By this means we presume we have established for ever, a true and legitimate marriage between the Empirical and Rational faculty; whose fastidious and unfortunate divorce and separation hath troubled and disordered the whole race and generation of mankind.
Mysteries are due to secrecy.
I would like, in my arbitrary way, to bring one nearer to the actual human being.
The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel.
― Francis Bacon Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
