Quotes
from Francis Bacon - Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes
“But
when men have at hand a remedy more agreeable to their corrupt will, marriage
is almost expulsed. And therefore there are with you seen infinite men that
marry not, but chose rather a libertine and impure single life, than to be
yoked in marriage; and many that do marry, marry late, when the prime and
strength of their years is past. And when they do marry, what is marriage to
them but a very bargain; wherein is sought alliance, or portion, or reputation,
with some desire (almost indifferent) of issue; and not the faithful nuptial
union of man and wife, that was first instituted.”
―
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis
“MEN
fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in
children, is increased with tales, so is the other.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“If
a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be
content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties”
―
Francis Bacon
“I
would address one general admonition to all, that they consider what are the
true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the
mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or for
fame, or power, or any of these inferior things, but for the benefit and use of
life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from lust of
power that the Angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell, but of
charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man come in danger by it.”
―
Francis Bacon
“The
understanding must not therefore be supplied with wings, but rather hung with
weights, to keep it from leaping and flying.”
―
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum / Nova Atlântida
“But
it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth,
nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth
bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“Judges
ought to remember that their office is to interpret law, and not to make law,
or give law.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral, Including also his
Apophthegms, Elegant Sentences and Wisdom of the Ancients
“Certainly
fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things
weighty and solid.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“Nothing
is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Prosperity
is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts
and hopes.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Nothing
is so mischievous as the apotheosis of error.”
―
Francis Bacon, The New Organon
“Reasoning
draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind
discovers it by the path of experience.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Silence
is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Men
in great place are thrice servants, servants to the sovereign or state,
servants of fame, and servants of business, so as they have freedom, neither in
their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“Knowledge
itself is power”
―
Francis Bacon
“God
Almighty first planted a garden: and indeed it is the purest of human
pleasures.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“And
yet surely to alchemy this right is due, that it may be compared to the
husbandman whereof Aesop makes the fable, that when he died he told his sons
that he had left unto them gold buried under the ground in his vineyard: and
they digged over the ground, gold they found none, but by reason of their
stirring and digging the mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great
vintage the year following: so assuredly the search and stir to make gold hath
brought to light a great number of good and fruitful inventions and
experiments, as well for the disclosing of nature as for the use of man's
life.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Oxford Francis Bacon IV: The Advancement of Learning
“The
noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have
sought to express the image of their minds, where those of their bodies have
failed. So the care of posterity is most in them that they have no posterity.”
―
Francis Bacon
