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Francis Bacon Quotes
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. While his own practical ideas about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have a long lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes Bacon the father of scientific method. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical details of which are still central in debates about science and methodology today. In addition to his work in the sciences, Bacon was also a venerable patron of libraries and developed a functional system for the cataloging of books by dividing them into three categories- history, poesy, and philosophy- which could further be divided into more specific subjects and subheadings.

Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the accession of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621. Because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years of age. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. He is buried at St Michael's Church, St Albans, Hertfordshire.

✵ 22. January 1561 – 9. April 1626   •   Other names Sir Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon photo
Francis Bacon: 295   quotes 26   likes

Francis Bacon Quotes

“Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.”

Francis Bacon book Novum Organum

Aphorism 1
Novum Organum (1620), Book I

Understanding , Nature

“It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
Essays (1625)

Lovers , Nature , Housing

“Certain Laodiceans, and lukewarm persons, think they may accommodate points of religion, by middle way, and taking part of both, and witty reconcilements; as if they would make an arbitrament between God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided; which will be done, if the league of Christians, penned by our Savior himself, were in two cross clauses thereof, soundly and plainly expounded: He that is not with us, is against us; and again, He that is not against us, is with us; that is, if the points fundamental and of substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished, from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Essays (1625)

God , Faith , Religion , Way

“For man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection: and they be three wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever: wisdom of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and wisdom of state.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book II, xxiii
The Advancement of Learning (1605)

Wisdom , Business , Nature

“Sir Henry Wotton used to say that critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.”

Francis Bacon

No. 64
Apophthegms (1624)

Clothes

“Virtue is like a rich stone — best plain set.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Beauty
Essays (1625)

“Cure the disease and kill the patient.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Friendship
Essays (1625)
Variant: Cure the disease, and kill the patient.

Disease

“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 book Essays

Of Revenge
Essays (1625)

Justice , Law , Revenge , Nature

“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 book Essays

Of Praise
Essays (1625)

Flowers

“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 book Essays

Of Regimen of Health
Essays (1625)

Wisdom , Health , Hurt

“Vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they infortunate.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Essays (1625)

Life , Personality

“Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences; for there is no worse torture than the torture of laws. Specially in case of laws penal, they ought to have care that that which was meant for terror be not tuned into rigour; and that they bring not upon the people that shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, Pluet super eos laqueos: for penal laws pressed are a shower of snares upon the people.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Judicature
Essays (1625)

People , Law

“Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say. "Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner."”

Francis Bacon

No. 76
Apophthegms (1624)

“The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book II
The Advancement of Learning (1605)

Sun

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

Francis Bacon book Novum Organum

Aphorism 81
Novum Organum (1620), Book I

“Lucid intervals and happy pauses.”

Francis Bacon

History of King Henry VII, III (1622)

Happiness

“For the inquisition of Final Causes is barren, and like a virgin consecrated to God produces nothing.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book III, viii
The Advancement of Learning (1605)

God

“My Lord St. Albans said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.”

Francis Bacon

No. 17
Apophthegms (1624)

Men , Nature

“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 book Essays

Of Adversity
Essays (1625)

“What then remains but that we still should cry
Not to be born, or, being born, to die?”

Francis Bacon

The World (1629)

Cry

“Riches are for spending.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Expense
Essays (1625)

“Of Unity Of Religion”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Essays (1625)

Religion

“Envy never makes holiday. ”

Francis Bacon
Holiday , Envy

“Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. ”

Francis Bacon

“They that deny a God destroy a man’s nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Atheism
Essays (1625)

God

“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

No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)

Drink , Reading , Appearance , Age

“Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the times after our Saviour came into the world; for our Saviour himself did first show His power to subdue ignorance, by His conference with the priests and doctors of the law, before He showed His power to subdue nature by His miracles.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

And the coming of this Holy Spirit was chiefly figured and expressed in the similitude and gift of tongues, which are but vehicula scientiæ.
The Advancement of Learning (1605)

God , Time , Law , Nature

“To seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4%3A26&version=KJV Be angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger.
Essays (1625)

Anger

“I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue. The Roman word is better, impedimenta. For as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue. It cannot be spared, nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it, sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Riches

Victory

“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.... vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they infortunate...”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Revenge

Personality , Life , Revenge

“Some, when they take revenge, are desirous, the party should know, whence it cometh. This is the more generous. For the delight seemeth to be, not so much in doing the hurt, as in making the party repent. But base and crafty cowards, are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Revenge

Hurt , Making love , Revenge

“Kings have to deal with their neighbors, their wives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their nobles, their second-nobles or gentlemen, their merchants, their commons, and their men of war; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Of Empire

War , Children , Men

“The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty, is often in their own mind.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Of Empire

Business

“The poets make Fame a monster. They describe her in part finely and elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath; so many tongues; so many voices; she pricks up so many ears.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Fame

Making love , Parting

“Let not judges also be ignorant of their own right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use and application of laws.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Law , Thinking , Parting

“Judges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

“An ancient clerk, skilful in precedents, wary in proceeding, and understanding in the business of the court, is an excellent finger of a court; and doth many times point the way to the judge himself.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Business , Way , Understanding , Time

“The place of justice is an hallowed place; and therefore not only the bench, but the foot-place; and precincts and purprise thereof, ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Justice

“The parts of a judge in hearing, are four: to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points, of that which hath been said; and to give the rule or sentence.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Parting

“In causes of life and death, judges ought (as far as the law permitteth) in justice to remember mercy; and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Justice , Law , Personality , Life

“Judges must beware of hard constructions, and strained inferences; for there is no worse torture, than the torture of laws.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Law

“The principal duty of a judge, is to suppress force and fraud; whereof force is the more pernicious, when it is open, and fraud, when it is close and disguised. Add thereto contentious suits, which ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit of courts.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Fraud

“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.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Negotiating

Business

“He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great, nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Nature in Men

Making love , Victory , Nature

“Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished. Force, maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse, maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Nature in Men

Nature

“These things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Masks and Triumphs

“Some have certain common places, and themes, wherein they are good and want variety; which kind of poverty is for the most part tedious, and when it is once perceived, ridiculous.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Discourse

Parting

“Some, in their discourse, desire rather commendation of wit, in being able to hold all arguments, than of judgment, in discerning what is true; as if it were a praise, to know what might be said, and not, what should be thought.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Discourse

“Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions.”

Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Expense