Francis Bacon quotes - page 20

It is by discourse that men associate and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obsesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations, wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into innumerable and inane controversies and fancies. (Francis Bacon)
The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First to lay asleep opposition and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are against them. The second is to reserve a man's self a fair retreat for if a man engage himself, by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another. For to him that opens himself, men will hardly show themselves adverse but will fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought. View quote
Francis Bacon
A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war. View quote
Francis Bacon
Dreams and predictions ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside. View quote
Francis Bacon
Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me. View quote
Francis Bacon
Perils commonly ask to be paid on pleasures. View quote
Francis Bacon
Why should a man be in love with his fetters, though of gold. View quote
Francis Bacon
The best preservative to keep the mind on health is the faithful admonition of a friend. View quote
Francis Bacon
One of the Seven was wont to say 'Laws were like cobwebs where the small flies were caught, and the great brake through.' View quote
Francis Bacon
It is nothing won to admit men with an open door, yet to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance. View quote
Francis Bacon
To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards Men. (Francis Bacon)
In civil business what first boldness what second and third boldness and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness. View quote
Francis Bacon
One of the fathers saith ... that old men go to death, and death comes to young men. View quote
Francis Bacon
Those herbs which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but, being trodden upon and crushed, are three that is, burnet, wild thyme and watermints. Therefore, you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread. View quote
Francis Bacon
Nature is commanded by obeying her. View quote
Francis Bacon
Defer not charities till death for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another mans than of his own. View quote
Francis Bacon
The desire for power in excess caused angels to fall the desire for knowledge in excess caused man to fall but in charity is no excess, neither can man or angels come in danger by it. View quote
Francis Bacon
He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers zeros, is the decay of the whole age. View quote
Francis Bacon
Atheism is rather in the life than in the heart of man. View quote
Francis Bacon
It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth ... and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below. View quote
Francis Bacon
The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse. (Francis Bacon)
The arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self. View quote
Francis Bacon
I knew a wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, 'Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.' View quote
Francis Bacon
Such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener, n. View quote
Francis Bacon
Boldness is a child of ignorance. View quote
Francis Bacon