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 subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
It were good that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly but quietly.
Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
The world's a bubble; and the life of man less than a span.
The voice of the people hath some divineness in it.
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.
Abeunt studia in mores.
The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
We cannot teach others the wisdom of the course we pursue, if we can show no results.
Nothing is terrible except fear itself.
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one.
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.
The savor of the bread of knowledge is very sweet to the taste.
To choose time is to save time.
It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is most commonly the foulest.
The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.
Seek ye first a kingdom of ends, not a kingdom of means.
Contemporaries of Francis Bacon
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Francis Bacon (1561–1626).