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
men two errors
Another error is an impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation; 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.
errors confusion experience
Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion.
thinking errors understanding
It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives
mistake men errors
The errors of young men are the ruin of business, but the errors of aged men amount to this, that more might have been done, or sooner.
knowledge men errors
But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...
adventure errors sea
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.
truth errors giving
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
dog truth errors
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.
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.