Francis Bacon citations

Page 3

“Un homme sage.”

“Se venger, c'est se mettre au niveau de l'ennemi; pardonner, c'est le dépasser.”

“Milord, il était dans ma destinée de finir comme Pline l'Ancien, qui mourut pour s’être trop approché du”

“[…]Le savoir dérivé d’Aristote, s'il est soustrait au libre examen, ne montera pas plus haut que le savoir qu' Aristote avait.”

“La science de l'homme est la mesure de sa puissance, parce qu'ignorer la cause, c'est ne pouvoir produire l'effet. On ne triomphe de la nature qu’en lui obéissant; et ce qui, dans la spéculation, porte le nom de cause, devient une règle dans la pratique.”

“On ne demande point au”

“Le médecin (…), pour guérir la maladie, tue le malade.”

“Les empiriques, semblables aux”

“Les empiriques, semblables aux fourmis, ne savent qu’amasser et user; les rationalistes, semblables aux araignées, font des toiles qu’ils tirent d’eux même; le procédé de l’abeille tient le milieu entre ces deux : elle recueille ses matériaux sur les fleurs des jardins et des champs; mais elle les transforme et les distille par une vertu qui lui est propre : c’est l’image du véritable travail de la philosophie, qui ne se fie pas aux seules forces de l’esprit humain et n’y prend même pas son principal appui. (…) C’est pourquoi il y a tout à espérer d’une alliance intime et sacrée de ces deux facultés expérimentale et rationnelle; alliance qui ne s’est pas encore rencontrée.”

“On ne demande point au syllogisme les principes de la science; on lui demande vainement les lois intermédiaires, parce qu’ils est incapable de saisir la nature dans sa subtilité; il lie l’esprit, mais non les choses.”

“Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he doth not.”

“Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.”

“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”

“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”

“Knowledge itself is power.”
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.

“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

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

“There are two ways of spreading light.. to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

“Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends”

“The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.”

“If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted”

“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.”

“There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.”

“Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.”

“The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.”

“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”

“The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.”

“the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.”

“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.”

“They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.”

“The only really interesting thing is
what happens between two people in a room.”

“The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.”

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”

“Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity.”

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”

“The remedy is worse than the disease.”

“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 man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.”

“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”