Francis bacon quotes

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

A little science estranges a man from God; a lot of science brings him back.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

If I sit and daydream, the images rush by like a succession of colored slides.

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion.

To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.

The partitions of knowledge are not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch not in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs.

Nothing opens the heart like a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes...and whatever lies upon the heart.

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.

The worst men often give the best advice.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.

Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas.

Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.

Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

In charity there is no excess.

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

Ipsa scientia potestas est. (Knowledge itself is power.)

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

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

Opportunity makes a thief.

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

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority.

By far the best proof is experience.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

Let every student of nature take this as his rule, that whatever the mind seizes upon with particular satisfaction is to be held in suspicion.

He that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what he can to impair another's.

Wounds cannot be cured without searching.

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

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

Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

Croesus said to Cambyses; That peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons.

He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Money is a great servant but a bad master.

Science is but an image of the truth.

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

Wonder is the seed of knowledge

All bravery stands upon comparisons.

When a bee stings, she dies. She cannot sting and live. When men sting, their better selves die. Every sting kills a better instinct. Men must not turn bees and kill themselves in stinging others.

Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees.

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

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.

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.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.

No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.

It's not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind

Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

You cannot teach a child to take care of himself unless you will let him try to take care of himself. He will make mistakes and out of these mistakes will come his wisdom.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

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.

Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life.

A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.

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

Always let losers have their words.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one.

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.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

Life is a marshmallow, easy to chew but hard to swallow.

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

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest

In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

The light that a man receives by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which comes from his own understanding and judgment, which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs.

A good conscience is a continual feast.

Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind.

I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Great changes are easier than small ones.

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.

All colours will agree in the dark.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

To know truly is to know by causes.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Jesus would have been one of the best photographers that ever existed. He was always looking at the beauty of people souls. In fact Jesus was constantly making pictures of God in people's life by looking at their souls and exposing them to his light.

He of whom many are afraid ought himself to fear many.

Money is a great treasure that only increases as you give it away.

The universe must not be narrowed down to the limit of our understanding, but our understanding must be stretched and enlarged to take in the image of the universe as it is discovered.

People prefer to believe what they want to be true.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.

Virtue is like precious odours,-most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.

For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

A cat will never drown if she sees the shore.

Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

The wonder of a single snowflake outweighs the wisdom of a million meteorologists.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.