Francis Bacon quotes - page 14

Great riches have sold more men than they have bought. (Francis Bacon)
No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed. View quote
Francis Bacon
I hold every man a debtor to his profession. View quote
Francis Bacon
Knowledge is a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. View quote
Francis Bacon
Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight. View quote
Francis Bacon
Generally he perceived in men of devout simplicity this opinion that the secrets of nature were the secrets of God, part of that glory into which man is not to press too boldly. View quote
Francis Bacon
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate. View quote
Francis Bacon
Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect. View quote
Francis Bacon
When any of the four pillars of governmentreligion, justice, counsel, and treasureare mainly shaken or weakened, men had need to pray for fair weather. View quote
Francis Bacon
None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy. View quote
Francis Bacon
For behavior, men learn it, as they take diseases, one of another. (Francis Bacon)
In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some one whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance. View quote
Francis Bacon
And as for Mixed Mathematics, I may only make this prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as nature grows further disclosed. View quote
Francis Bacon
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy i. View quote
Francis Bacon
Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. View quote
Francis Bacon
There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried. View quote
Francis Bacon
Nor is mine a trumpet which summons and excites men to cut each other to pieces with mutual contradictions, or to quarrel and fight with one another but rather to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of Things. View quote
Francis Bacon
In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues. View quote
Francis Bacon
The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love. View quote
Francis Bacon
The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man. View quote
Francis Bacon
Art is man added to nature. (Francis Bacon)
But by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses; in that things which strike the sense outweigh things which do not immediately strike it, though they be more important. Hence it is that speculation commonly ceases where sight ceases; insomuch that of things invisible there is little or no observation. View quote
Francis Bacon
Many secrets of art and nature are thought by the unlearned to be magical. View quote
Francis Bacon
Nothing is to be feared but fear. View quote
Francis Bacon
The eye of the understanding is like the eye of the sense for as you may see great objects through small crannies or holes, so you may see great axioms of nature through small and contemptible instances. View quote
Francis Bacon