Words matter. These are the best Francis Bacon Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince’s part to pardon.
Acorns were good until bread was found.
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.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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.
Knowledge is power.
It is natural to die as to be born.
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
They that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.
Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.
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.
God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.
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.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
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.
Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
Rebellions of the belly are the worst.
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.
The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.
Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.
Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
Friends are thieves of time.
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.
The remedy is worse than the disease.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.
The place of justice is a hallowed place.
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
It is impossible to love and to be wise.
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.
People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can’t fool the neighbors.
Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.
Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.
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.
We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
For my name and memory I leave to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.
God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
