Quotes by Francis Bacon

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

"For knowledge, too, is itself power."

"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."

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

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

"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."

"Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion."

"Wise men make more opportunities than they find."

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

"Knowledge and human power are synonymous."

"He that hath knowledge spareth his words."

"Knowledge is power."

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action."

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

"Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress."

"Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death."

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

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

"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."

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

"Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men."

"The worst men often give the best advice."

"Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse."

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

"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."

"The arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self."

"The joys of parents are secret: and so are their griefs and fears."

"All rising to great place is by a winding stair."

"What is truth? said jesting Pilate and would not stay for an answer."

"Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible."

"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."

"Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority."

"Science is but an image of the truth."

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

"The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds."

"Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid."

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

"Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished."

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

"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."

"Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience."

"Prosperity doth best discover vice, but Adversity doth best discover virtue."

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

"By indignities men come to dignities."

"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."

"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green."

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

"God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures."

"Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice."

"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

"God's first creature, which was light."

"God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires."

"God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures."

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

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

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

"Friends are thieves of time."

"Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time."

"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."

"Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use."

"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."

"The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall the desire of knowledge caused men to fall."

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

"The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express."

"Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite."

"It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."

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

"I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death."

"Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study."

"If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics."

"Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education in the elder, a part of experience."

"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."

"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."

"Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy."

"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."

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

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

"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread."

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

"Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set."

"It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings."

"Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason."

"Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God."

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

"Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience."

"The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it."

"Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom."

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other."

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other."

"This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half."

"Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom."

"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well."

"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."

"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world."

"Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience."

"Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."

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

"Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing."

"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."

"Acorns were good until bread was found."

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

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

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

"Young people are fitter to invent than to judge fitter for execution than for counsel and more fit for new projects than for settled business."

"We cannot command Nature except by obeying her."

"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."

"It is impossible to love and to be wise."

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