Bacon, Francis
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Bacon, Francis
Consistency is the foundation of virtue.
Bacon, Francis
Consistency
Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.
Bacon, Francis
Consistency
A good conscience is a continual feast.
Bacon, Francis
Conscience
It is natural to die as to be born.
Bacon, Francis
Death and Dying
It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.
Bacon, Francis
Death and Dying
I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.
Bacon, Francis
Death and Dying
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.
Bacon, Francis
Discretion
People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.
Bacon, Francis
Custom
Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men s heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.
Bacon, Francis
Doubt
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
Bacon, Francis
Courtesy
The place of justice is a hallowed place.
Bacon, Francis
Court
God s first creature, which was light.
Bacon, Francis
Creation
If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.
Bacon, Francis
Certainty
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Bacon, Francis
Certainty
The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.
Bacon, Francis
Desire
In contemplation, if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Bacon, Francis
Doubt
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
Bacon, Francis
Doubt
Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight.
Bacon, Francis
Doubt
Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.
Bacon, Francis
Conceit
Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
Bacon, Francis
Choice
In charity there is no excess.
Bacon, Francis
Charity
To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.
Bacon, Francis
Cheerfulness
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.
Bacon, Francis
Deception
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Bacon, Francis
Family
Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
Bacon, Francis
Fate
Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
Bacon, Francis
Fate
For my name and memory I leave to men s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.
Bacon, Francis
Heresy
Acorns were good until bread was found.
Bacon, Francis
Improvement
Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.
Bacon, Francis
Facts
Riches are for spending.
Bacon, Francis
Excess
The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.
Bacon, Francis
Honor
It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man s judgment.
Bacon, Francis
History and Historians
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
Bacon, Francis
History and Historians
God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasure.
Bacon, Francis
Gardening and Gardens
None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.
Bacon, Francis
Envy
A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.
Bacon, Francis
Grace
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
Bacon, Francis
Home
Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.
Bacon, Francis
Friends and Friendship
The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
Bacon, Francis
Friends and Friendship
Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
Bacon, Francis
Fortune
This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
Bacon, Francis
Forgiveness
God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
Bacon, Francis
Intelligence and Intellectuals
Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.
Bacon, Francis
Lies and Lying
Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Bacon, Francis
Humor
For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
Bacon, Francis
Love
Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.
Bacon, Francis
Life and Living
Knowledge is power.
Bacon, Francis
Knowledge
By indignities men come to dignities.
Bacon, Francis
Insults
Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.
Bacon, Francis
Learning
Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.
Bacon, Francis
Learning
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.
Bacon, Francis
Ideas
Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.
Bacon, Francis
Humankind
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
Bacon, Francis
Hope
Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
Bacon, Francis
Law and Lawyers
Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.
Bacon, Francis
Power
Mysteries are due to secrecy.
Bacon, Francis
Mystery
As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.
Bacon, Francis
Innovation
Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
Bacon, Francis
Knowledge
Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.
Bacon, Francis
Justice
Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.
Bacon, Francis
Love
Wives are young men s mistresses; companions for middle age, and old men s nurses.
Bacon, Francis
Marriage
It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man s self.
Bacon, Francis
Power
I hold every man a debtor to his profession.
Bacon, Francis
Professions and Professionals
We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
Bacon, Francis
Philosophers and Philosophy
No man s fortune can be an end worthy of his being.
Bacon, Francis
Money
Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.
Bacon, Francis
Money
The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.
Bacon, Francis
Strategies
If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.
Bacon, Francis
Money
He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.
Bacon, Francis
Problems
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
Bacon, Francis
Politicians and Politics
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
Bacon, Francis
Training
Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
Bacon, Francis
Money
Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.
Bacon, Francis
Past
Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.
Bacon, Francis
Money
All colors will agree in the dark.
Bacon, Francis
Prejudice
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
Bacon, Francis
Nature
Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.
Bacon, Francis
Prosperity
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
Bacon, Francis
Present
Nature is commanded by obeying her.
Bacon, Francis
Nature
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man s body.
Bacon, Francis
Poetry and Poets
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Bacon, Francis
Opportunity
Many a man s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.
Bacon, Francis
Opposition
The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
Bacon, Francis
Nationalities and Nationalism
Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.
Bacon, Francis
Patience
Opportunity makes a thief.
Bacon, Francis
Opportunity
Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.
Bacon, Francis
Nudity
Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.
Bacon, Francis
Painters and Painting
There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.
Bacon, Francis
Suspicion
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
Bacon, Francis
Parents and Parenting
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
Bacon, Francis
Solitude
A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.
Bacon, Francis
Revenge
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
Bacon, Francis
Questions
Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.
Bacon, Francis
Riches
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
Bacon, Francis
Questions
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
Bacon, Francis
Questions
Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.
Bacon, Francis
Speech
The mould of a man s fortune is in his own hands.
Bacon, Francis
Responsibility
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
Bacon, Francis
Trying
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Bacon, Francis
Revenge
Silence is the virtue of fools.
Bacon, Francis
Silence
In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.
Bacon, Francis
Thoughts and Thinking
Science is but an image of the truth.
Bacon, Francis
Science and Scientists
The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.
Bacon, Francis
Proverbs
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.
Bacon, Francis
Truth
To choose time is to save time.
Bacon, Francis
Time and Time Management
God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.
Bacon, Francis
Providence
Time is the measure of business.
Bacon, Francis
Time and Time Management
People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Bacon, Francis
Servants
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.
Bacon, Francis
Truth
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
Bacon, Francis
Truth
I would live to study, and not study to live.
Bacon, Francis
Studying
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
Bacon, Francis
Beauty
Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested.
Bacon, Francis
Books - Reading
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
Bacon, Francis
Bible
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
Bacon, Francis
Bible
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
Bacon, Francis
Fame
Age will not be defied.
Bacon, Francis
Age and Aging
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Bacon, Francis
Fear
Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.
Bacon, Francis
Boldness
Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.
Bacon, Francis
Atheism
It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.
Bacon, Francis
Fear
Atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man.
Bacon, Francis
Atheism
It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men s minds about to religion.
Bacon, Francis
Atheism
I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
Bacon, Francis
Atheism
There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man s self.
Bacon, Francis
Advice
Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.
Bacon, Francis
Ability
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.
Bacon, Francis
Fame
Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.
Bacon, Francis
Age and Aging
Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
Bacon, Francis
Age and Aging
Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Bacon, Francis
Age and Aging
People of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom drive business home to it s conclusion, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
Bacon, Francis
Age and Aging
It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!
Bacon, Francis
Action
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Bacon, Francis
Beauty
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Bacon, Francis
Books - Reading
Cure the disease and kill the patient.
Bacon, Francis
Doctors
Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
Bacon, Francis
Bachelor
Anger makes dull men witty -- but it keeps them poor.
Bacon, Francis
Anger
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they see nothing but sea.
Bacon, Francis
Discovery
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
Bacon, Francis
Adversity
That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.
Bacon, Francis
Change
He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
Bacon, Francis
Advice
They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
Bacon, Francis
Adaptability
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
Bacon, Francis
Virtue
Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.
Bacon, Francis
Variety
Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
Bacon, Francis
Youth
The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
Bacon, Francis
Wealth
There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
Bacon, Francis
Wisdom
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Bacon, Francis
Wisdom
For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.
Bacon, Francis
Wisdom