Francis Bacon quotes

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

— Francis Bacon

“By indignities men come to dignities.”

— Francis Bacon

“God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.”

— Francis Bacon

“Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.”

— Francis Bacon

“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.”

— Francis Bacon

“Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.”

— Francis Bacon

“Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.”

— Francis Bacon

“Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.”

— Francis Bacon

“Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.”

— Francis Bacon

“Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.”

— Francis Bacon

“The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.”

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

“The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.”

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.”

— Francis Bacon

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”

— Francis Bacon

“As the births of living creatures are at first ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time.”

— Francis Bacon

“For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.”

— Francis Bacon

“Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.”

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

“It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.”

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

“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

“Knowledge and human power are synonymous.”

— Francis Bacon

“Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.”

— Francis Bacon

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

— Francis Bacon

“Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.”

— Francis Bacon

“Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.”

— Francis Bacon

“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”

— Francis Bacon

“Rebellions of the belly are the worst.”

— Francis Bacon