Quotes by Francis Bacon

“Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.”

“Nature cannot be commanded except by being obeyed.”

“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.”

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”

“Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.”

“the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.”

“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”

“Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all ...”

“Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.”

“Where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.”

“Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add ple...”

“Money is a great servant but a bad master.”

“The only really interesting thing iswhat happens between two people in a room.”

“But it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural tho...”

“God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.”

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

“We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do . For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except men kno...”

“Crafty men condemn studies; Simple men admire them; And wise men use them: For they teach not their own use: but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.”

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”

“I would address one general admonition to all, that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiori...”