Portrait of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Empiricism, scientific method

Early Modern influential 162 sayings

Sayings by Francis Bacon

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

1625 — Essays, Of Marriage and Single Life
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

The greatest impediment to knowledge is the presumption of knowledge.

1620 — Novum Organum
Educational Unverifiable

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear.

1625 — Essays, Of Great Place
Wisdom Confirmed

For as in a looking-glass, when the face is once gone, it is gone for ever; so in memory, when a thing is once forgotten, it is gone for ever.

1605 — The Advancement of Learning
Wisdom Unverifiable

The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain.

1620 — Novum Organum
Wisdom Unverifiable

The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools.

1625 — Essays, Of Superstition
Wisdom Confirmed

For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.

1625 — Essays, Of Truth
Wisdom Unverifiable

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it.

1625 — Essays, Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature
Educational Confirmed

It is a thing that ever proveth, that a man's fortune is the fruit of his own virtue.

1625 — Essays, Of Fortune
Money & Business Unverifiable

He that hath wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune.

1625 — Essays, Of Marriage and Single Life
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

The only way to conquer nature is to obey her.

1620 — Novum Organum
War & Conflict Unverifiable

To be ignorant of the causes of evils is to be deprived of the remedy.

1625 — Essays, Of Innovations
Life & Death Unverifiable

Knowledge is power.

1597 — Meditationes Sacrae (Of Heresies)
Educational Confirmed

The world's a bubble, and the life of man less than a span.

c. 1612 — The World, a poem
Wisdom Unverifiable

All colors will agree in the dark.

1625 — Essays, Of Unity in Religion
Life & Death Unverifiable

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.

1625 — Essays, Of Gardens
Biblical Unverifiable

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

1625 — Essays, Of Studies
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

He that hath no children, may be a said to be a kind of dead man.

1625 — Essays, Of Marriage and Single Life
Life & Death Unverifiable

It is not possible to love and to be wise.

1625 — Essays, Of Love
Inspirational Confirmed

Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.

1625 — Essays, Of Seditions and Troubles
Money & Business Unverifiable
Your Cart

Your cart is empty