FRANCIS BACON QUOTES VII

English philosopher (1561-1626)

It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.

FRANCIS BACON

Novum Organum


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 merchandize. Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust. But it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the philology of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Vicissitude Of Things", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: age


In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: revenge


Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum


God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: gardening


Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Delays," Essays

Tags: fortune


For justs, and tourneys, and barriers; the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts: as lions, bears, camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance; or in the bravery of their liveries; or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armor. But enough of these toys.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Masques And Triumphs", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: toys


Examine thy customs of diet, sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like; and try, in any thing thou shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it, by little and little; but so, as if thou dost find any inconvenience by the change, thou come back to it again: for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally held good and wholesome, from that which is good particularly, and fit for thine own body.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Regiment Of Health", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: change


Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.

FRANCIS BACON, Exempla Antithetorum

Tags: truth


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

Novum Organum

Tags: possibility


But as Cicero, when he setteth down an idea of a perfect orator, doth not mean that every pleader should be such; and so likewise, when a prince or a courtier hath been described by such as have handled those subjects, the mould hath used to be made according to the perfection of the art, and not according to common practice: so I understand it, that it ought to be done in the description of a politic man, I mean politic for his own fortune.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: art


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.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: history


Art is man added to Nature.

FRANCIS BACON

Descriptio Globi Intellectus

Tags: art


Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: virtue


To speak now of the true temper of empire, it is a thing rare and hard to keep; for both temper, and distemper, consist of contraries. But it is one thing, to mingle contraries, another to interchange them. The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian, is full of excellent instruction. Vespasian asked him, What was Nero's overthrow? He answered, Nero could touch and tune the harp well; but in government, sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low. And certain it is, that nothing destroyeth authority so much, as the unequal and untimely interchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Empire", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: authority


This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves. But this is a sure rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great, when the cause of it in him is small; or if the envy be general, in a manner upon all the ministers of an estate; then the envy (though hidden) is truly upon the state itself. And so much of public envy or discontentment, and the difference thereof from private envy, which was handled in the first place.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Envy", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: envy


The folly of one man, is the fortune of another. For no man prospers so suddenly, as by others' errors.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Fortune", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: fortune


Since there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: lending


Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: mind


Poesy is a part of learning in measure of words, for the most part restrained, but in all other points extremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the imagination; which, being not tied to the laws of matter, may at pleasure join that which nature hath severed, and sever that which nature hath joined, and so make unlawful matches and divorces of things.

FRANCIS BACON

The Advancement of Learning

Tags: nature