English philosopher (1561-1626)
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
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
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
The voice of Nature will consent, whether the voice of man do or no.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
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
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
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
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
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
FRANCIS BACON
Apothegms
Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
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
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
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
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
Knowledge is power.
FRANCIS BACON
Meditationes Sacrae
But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this -- that men despair and think things impossible.
FRANCIS BACON
Novum Organum
We cannot command nature except by obeying her.
FRANCIS BACON
Novum Organum
The cord breaketh at last by the weakest pull.
FRANCIS BACON
On Seditions