Quotes
from Francis Bacon - Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority
“Atheism
leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation;
all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not;
but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the
minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary
of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism
(as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been
the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that
ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the
people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted
to practice, in a reversed order.”
―
Francis Bacon
“The
best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. ”
―
Francis Bacon
“Nature
is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.”
―
Sir Francis Bacon
“There
Are But Two Tragedies in Life-One is One's Inability to attain One's Heart's
Desire-The Other Is To Have It!”
―
Francis Bacon
“Read
not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find
talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays
“Truth
is the daughter of time, not of authority.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Knowledge
is power.”
―
Sir Francis Bacon, The History of the Reign of King Henry VII
“I
will never be an old man. To me old age is always 15 years older than I am.”
―
Francis Bacon
“To
conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an
ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be
too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works,
divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or
proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and
not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not
unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Oxford Francis Bacon IV: The Advancement of Learning
“We
have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a
snowflake...”
―
Sir Francis Bacon
“For
friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will
neither flatter nor dissemble.”
―
Francis Bacon
“Parents
who wish to train up their children in the way they should go must go in the
way in which they would have their children go.”
―
Bacon
“The
Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe
or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the
measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of
the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to
the measure of the universe. And 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.”
―
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum
“They
are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but
sea.”
―
Francis Bacon, The Oxford Francis Bacon IV: The Advancement of Learning
“To
suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.”
―
Sir Francis Bacon
“A
Man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it ”
―
Francis Bacon, The Essays of Sir Francis Bacon
