Francis Bacon idézet

oldal 8

„Egyes könyveket megízlelünk, másokat lenyelünk, de nagyon kevés az olyan, amelyet megrágunk és megemésztünk.”

„Ha az ember bizonyossággal kezd, akkor kételyekkel végez; de ha megelégszik azzal, ha kételyekkel kezd, akkor bizonyossággal végez.”

„A bölcs ember a lehetőségeit megteremti, és nem megtalálja.”

„A remény egy jó reggeli, de rossz vacsora.”

„Az óvatos kérdés a bölcsesség egyik fele.”

„A tudomány minden nyomorúságának egyetlen alapvető oka van: oktalanul csodáljuk az emberi elme erejét, de nem igyekszünk hatékony segédeszközökkel a segítségére sietni.”

„Tanításunkban csupán egyetlen, igen egyszerű módokhoz folyamodunk: visszavezetni a tényekhez, a tények sorozatához és rendjéhez az embereket, és rávenni őket, hogy szabaduljanak meg egy időre a fogalmaktól, és szokjanak lassan össze a valósággal.”

„A természet fortélyossága lépten-nyomon kijátssza az érzékek és az értelem fortélyosságát, úgyhogy bolond időtöltés volna mind a sok szép elmélkedés, emberi okoskodás, vitatkozás, ha nem akadna, aki felhivja erre a figyelmet.”

„A temészetet szolgáló és magyarázó ember annyit tehet és foghat fel, amennyit a természet rendjéből a dolgokra vagy elméjére vonatkozóan megfigyelhet: ennél többet nem tudhat és nem tehet.”

„A fény terjesztésének két módja van: gyertyának lenni vagy tükörnek, amely visszatükrözi a gyertya fényét.”

„A barátság a barátok meglátogatásával nő, de főleg azzal, ha ritkán látogatjuk meg őket.”

„A csend az alvás, amely táplálja a bölcsességet.”

“Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.”

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

“The great atheists, indeed are hypocrites; which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end.”

“The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain. Therefore it is that we cannot conceive of any end or limit to the world, but always as of necessity it occurs to us that there is something beyond… But he is no less an unskilled and shallow philosopher who seeks causes of that which is most general, than he who in things subordinate and subaltern omits to do so.”

“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.”

“He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.”

“The greatest trust, between man and man, is the trust of giving counsel. For in other confidences, men commit the parts of life; their lands, their goods, their children, their credit, some particular affair; but to such as they make their counsellors, they commit the whole: by how much the more, they are obliged to all faith and integrity.”

“Again, we should notice the force, effect, and consequences of inventions, which are nowhere more conspicuous than in those three which were unknown to the ancients; namely, printing, gunpowder, and the compass. For these three have changed the appearance and state of the whole world; first in literature, then in warfare, and lastly in navigation: and innumerable changes have been thence derived, so that no empire, sect, or star, appears to have exercised a greater power and influence on human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.”

“Let great authors have their due, as time, which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, which is, further and further to discover truth.”

“Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“Cure the disease and kill the patient.”

“Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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."”

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

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

“Lucid intervals and happy pauses.”

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

“The world's a bubble, and the life of man
Less than a span.”

“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.”