Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC KCwas an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth21 January 1561
adventure age business consult content drive home mediocrity object people repent seldom soon themselves
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.
begin certainty content man shall
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.
begins content man shall
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.
knowledge giving contentment
The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God.
admit men open receive reserved shut won
It is nothing won to admit men with an open door, yet to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance.
divinity humanity poor within
Our humanity were a poor thing were it not for the divinity which stirs within us
books-and-reading fragments passages private records recover save somewhat time
Out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books, and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time
strength
Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he groweth out of use
man true
Man prefers to think what he prefers to be true
study
I would live to study, and not study to live.
amongst bats fly suspicions thoughts
Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight.
apply expect innovation medicine surely
Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils.
petty self whom
The arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self
crowd faces far gallery men perceive solitude talk
Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. 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.