Francis Bacon
Father of the scientific method
Most quoted
"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 at the last took occasion to chide their weakness and slavish disposition."
— from Essays, 1625
"For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect according to their true incidence; but it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, if it be not regulated and corrected by the rules of true philosophy."
— from The Advancement of Learning, 1605
"The true method of experience first lights the candle, and then by means of the candle shows the way; commencing as it does with experience duly ordered and digested, not bungling or erratic, and from it eliciting axioms, and from established axioms again new experiments."
— from Novum Organum, 1620
All quotes by Francis Bacon (233)
The method of discovery and the method of teaching are very different.
For the unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to look into his own mind; and therefore he is ever abroad, and never at home.
The greatest error of all is to expect to find in the sciences a final end and a complete repose.
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the sense and understanding.
For the mind of man is more moved by affirmatives than by negatives.
The true beginning of knowledge is the discovery of our own ignorance.
The proper office of a philosopher is to make himself a channel for the thoughts of others, and not to be a fountain of his own.
Ipsa scientia potestas est.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature; beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.
There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names—calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Marketplace; the fourth, Idols of the Theater.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.
Riches are for spending.
If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.
The place of justice is a hallowed place.
Contemporaries of Francis Bacon
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Francis Bacon (1561–1626).