FRANCIS BACON QUOTES VI

English philosopher (1561-1626)

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

"Of Superstition", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: superstition


The cord breaketh at last by the weakest pull.

FRANCIS BACON

On Seditions

Tags: weakness


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.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Ambition," Essays

Tags: ambition


Since there must be borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be permitted.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: lending


No people overcharged with tribute, is fit for empire.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of the True Greatness Of Kingdoms And Estates", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral


Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Nature in Men," Essays

Tags: nature


It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.

FRANCIS BACON

Novum Organum


It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: life


If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Fortune," Essays

Tags: fortune


Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Revenge," Essays

Tags: cowardice


And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Travel", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral


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

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: philosophy


They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: God


Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself, above human frailty.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Atheism", Essays

Tags: atheism


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. And to say truth, it is not easy, when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Cunning", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: cunning


Libraries ... are as the shrines where all the relics of ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays Or Counsels

Tags: library


Knowledge is power.

FRANCIS BACON

Meditationes Sacrae

Tags: knowledge


If a man would cross a business, that he doubts some other would handsomely and effectually move, let him pretend to wish it well, and move it himself in such sort as may foil it.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Cunning", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Tags: business


If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins them.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays

Tags: courtesy


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

FRANCIS BACON

Apothegms

Tags: hope