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)
Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.
The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
The fortune which nobody sees makes a man happy and unenvied.
It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
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; nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture.
For also knowledge itself is power.
The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.
Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
Contemporaries of Francis Bacon
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Francis Bacon (1561–1626).