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 human mind is prone to error and to be led astray by false appearances.
Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight.
The inquiry, knowledge, and belief of truth is the sovereign good of human nature.
It is a great happiness when men's professions and their inclinations agree.
The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.
He that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need to be afraid of others' memory.
The first creature of God was the light of sense; the last was the light of reason.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Certainly, wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity.
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.
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty.
The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
The empire of man over things is founded on the arts and sciences alone.
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Humanity is a great thing, but knowledge is greater.
Contemporaries of Francis Bacon
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Francis Bacon (1561–1626).