Francis Bacon Quotes

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

The colors that show best by candlelight are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green.

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

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

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

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

Laws and Institutions Must Go Hand in Hand with the Progress of the Human Mind.

God's first creature, which was light.

It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less.

In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.

There is a cunning which we in England call the rning of the cat in the pan.

I loathe my own face, and I've done self-portraits because I've had nobody else to do.

We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps.

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat" in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he says it as if another had said it to him.

I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail of the human presence and memory trace of past events, as the snail leaves its slime.

Atheism leads a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue.

People prefer to believe what they want to be true.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.

Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

[Science is] the labor and handicraft of the mind.

Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.

By far the best proof is experience.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel nor man come in danger by it.

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.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

It is a great happiness when men's professions and their inclinations accord.

He that cometh to seek after knowledge, with a mind to scorn, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction.

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

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if I drew something first, then my paintings would be illustrations of drawings.

For no man can forbid the spark nor tell whence it may come.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

A man cannot speak to his son, but as a father; to his wife, but as a husband; to his enemy, but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak, as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person.

Judges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables :The supreme law of all is the weal [weatlh/ well-being] of the people.

The human understanding of its own nature is prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.