Quotes By Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

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

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

God's first creature, which was light.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

The worst men often give the best advice.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.