← Familiar Quotations / A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to / Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature

Francis Bacon. 1561-1626

(Works: Spedding and Ellis).

I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.

Maxims of the Law. Preface.

Come home to men's business and bosoms.

Dedication to the Essays, Edition 1625.

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

Of Truth.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

Of Death.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

Of Revenge.

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."

Of Adversity.

It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."

Of Adversity.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

Of Adversity.

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

Of Adversity.

Virtue is like precious odours,—most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.[165:1]

Of Adversity.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

Of Marriage and Single Life.

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.[165:2]

Of Marriage and Single Life.

Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.

Of Great Place.

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."

Of Boldness.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.[165:3]

Of Goodness.

The remedy is worse than the disease.[165:4]

Of Seditions.

I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.

Of Atheism.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.[166:1]

Of Atheism.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.

Of Travel.

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.[166:2]

Of Empire.

In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad."

Of Cunning.

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 lays it as if another had said it to him.

Of Cunning.

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.

Of Cunning.

It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.

Of Seeming Wise.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.

Of Regimen of Health.

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.

Of Discourse.

Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination,[167:1] their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions.

Of Custom and Education.

Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.[167:2]

Of Fortune.

If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.[167:3]

Of Fortune.

Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.

Of Youth and Age.

Virtue is like a rich stone,—best plain set.

Of Beauty.

God Almighty first planted a garden.[167:4]

Of Gardens.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.

Of Gardens.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Of Studies.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

Of Studies.

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

Of Studies.

The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.[168:1]

Of Vicissitude of Things.

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

Proposition touching Amendment of Laws.

Knowledge is power.—Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.[168:2]

Meditationes Sacræ. De Hæresibus.

Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.[168:3]

Historia Vitæ et Mortis; Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. Exper. 100.

When you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires. This is not caused by any natural defect, but first for want of election, when you, having a large and fruitful mind, should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken. Rich soils are often to be weeded.

Letter of Expostulation to Coke.

"Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi." These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves.[169:1]

Advancement of Learning. Book i. (1605.)

For the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.

Advancement of Learning. Book i.

The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.[169:2]