Francis Bacon (filozof) cytaty

strona 5

„Gdy człowiek na początku jest pewny, kończy na wątpliwości, a gdy zaczyna od wątpliwości, kończy na pewności.”

„Wiedza to potęga.”
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.

„Nie masz doskonałego piękna bez pewnej niezwykłości w umiarach.”

„Ten, kto nie jest z nami, jest przeciw nam. Kto nie jest przeciw nam, jest z nami.”

„Mała dawka filozofii czyni z człowieka ateistę, duża zwraca go ku religii.”

„Łatwiej się w kłótnię nie wdawać, niż się z niej później wycofać.”

„Kto mówi wszystko, co wie, wygada także to, czego nie wie.”

„Bądź wierny sobie, a nie będziesz niewierny innym.”

„Są tacy, którzy umieją tasować karty, ale nie umieją grać.”

„Mężczyzna jest już na wpół zakochany w każdej kobiecie, która słucha, gdy mówi.”

„Naturę można ukryć, czasem zwalczyć, rzadko stłumić.”

„Prawa są jak sieć pajęcza, w której więzną małe muchy, ale przez którą przebijają się wielkie.”

„Mężczyzna czuje się siedem lat starszy w dzień po ślubie.”

„Nie można przyrody zwyciężyć inaczej niż przez to, że się jej słucha.”

„Żona jest dla młodego mężczyzny kochanką, dla dojrzałego towarzyszką, dla starego pielęgniarką, więc w każdym wieku jest pretekst, żeby się ożenić.”

„Gdyby usunąć ze świata człowieka, świat stałby się zupełnym bezładem, bez żadnego sensu i celu, (…) nie zmierzającym ku niczemu.”

„Wątpliwości nie rujnują wiary, lecz ją umacniają.”

„To niemożliwe, by kochać i być rozsądnym.”

„Okazja czyni złodzieja.”

„Nie masz w państwie nic boleśniejszego ponad to, kiedy ludzie sprytni uchodzą za mądrych.”

„Przyjaźń podwaja radość, a o połowę zmniejsza przykrości.”

„Można wyleczyć chorobę, ale zabić pacjenta.”

„Prawdziwa wiedza – to znajomość przyczyn.”

„Lekarz leczy chorobę, a zabija pacjenta.”

„Lekarstwo bywa gorsze od choroby.”

„Milczenie jest cnotą głupich.”

„Kawaler jest przykrzejszy, złośliwszy, niż człowiek żonaty; mniej posiada uczuć podnoszących czułość i dotykających serca.”

„Rozum ludzki nie odznacza się trzeźwym spojrzeniem,
lecz podlega wpływowi woli i uczyć; tak powstają
nauki budowane wedle upodobań człowieka.
Albowiem człowiek łatwiej wierzy w to, co wolałby,
aby było prawdziwe. Stąd to pochodzi, że odrzuca:
rzeczy trudne, gdyż brak mu cierpliwości w prowadzeniu badań;
rzeczy trzeźwe, ponieważ ograniczają nadzieję;
[…]
poglądy przeciwne pospolitemu mniemaniu ze względu na opinie gminu.
Niezliczone są wreszcie, a niekiedy nieuchwytne sposoby,
którymi uczucia zabarwiają i zarażają rozum.”

„Ludzkie zrozumienie jest jak krzywe zwierciadło, które, otrzymując promienie nieregularnie, zniekształca i zmienia kolor natury rzeczy przez wmieszanie w niej swojej natury.”

„Mądry człowiek nie czeka na okazje, sam je stwarza.”

„Rozumowi więc ludzkiemu nie trzeba dodawać skrzydeł, lecz raczej ołowiu i ciężarów, ażeby hamowały wszelkie wyskoki.”

„Prawdę łatwiej wyłowić z błędów niż z zamętu.”

„Umysłowi ludzkiemu nie skrzydeł potrzeba, lecz ołowiu.”

“Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.”

“Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.”

“To God, truly, the Giver and Architect of Forms, and it may be to the angels and higher intelligences, it belongs to have an affirmative knowledge of forms immediately, and from the first contemplation. But this assuredly is more than man can do, to whom it is granted only to proceed at first by negatives, and at last to end in affirmatives, after exclusion has been exhausted.”

“Be true to thyself, as thou be not false to others.”

“Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.”

“It is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause; for so he saith, “Knowledge bloweth up, but charity buildeth up.””

“Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.”

“But we may go further, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends; without which the world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections, is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity.”

“Certainly fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things weighty and solid.”

“The obliteration of the evil hath been practised by two means, some kind of redemption or expiation of that which is past, and an inception or account de novo for the time to come. But this part seemeth sacred and religious, and justly; for all good moral philosophy (as was said) is but a handmaid to religion.”

“The winning of honor, is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth, without disadvantage.”

“When you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires. This is not caused by any natural defect, but first for want of election, when you, having a large and fruitful mind, should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken. Rich soils are often to be weeded.”

“The natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs of nature, which they term fortune, seemeth to me… in particularities of physical causes more real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato; whereof both intermingled final causes, the one as a part of theology, and the other as a part of logic, which were the favourite studies respectively of both those persons. Not because those final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired, being kept within their own province; but because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that tract.”

“There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome.”

“Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.”

“So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward.”

“Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.”

“There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.”

“It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.”

“Sacred and inspired divinity, the sabaoth and port of all men's labours and peregrinations.”

“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. 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 logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.”

“It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man, so weak, but it mates, and masters, the fear of death; and therefore, death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him, that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupieth it.”

“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.”

“Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like that, which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore measure not dispatch, by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business.”

“Deformed persons are commonly even with nature; for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature; being for the most part (as the Scripture saith) void of natural affection; and so they have their revenge of nature.”

“The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.”

“I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense. I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.”