English philosopher (1561-1626)
The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a Siren, sometimes like a Fury.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Nature in Men," Essays
Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Truth," Essays
Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.
FRANCIS BACON
De Augmentis Scientiarum
States as great engines move slowly.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Revenge," Essays
Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.
FRANCIS BACON, Exempla Antithetorum
It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.
FRANCIS BACON
Novum Organum
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Studies," Essays
Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Seditions and Troubles," Essays
Virtue is like precious odors -- most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Adversity," Essays
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
In charity there is no excess.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," Essays
Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Youth and Age", Essays; or Counsels Civil and Moral
Discretion of speech, is more than eloquence.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Discourse," Essays
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Truth," Essays
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
"Of Studies," Essays
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced.
FRANCIS BACON
Novum Organum
Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.
FRANCIS BACON
"An Essay on Death," The Remaines of the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam (Bacon's authorship of this essay has been disputed by some historians.)