Civil history [...] by its importance and authority, holds the first rank among human writings.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. His works are credited with developing the scientific method and remained influential through the scientific revolution.
To its [history's] faith are committed the examples of our ancestors, the vicissitudes of things, the foundations of civil prudence [...].
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To the importance of the enterprise is joined the difficulty, which is no less.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To carry one's mind back into the past, and to make it, so to speak, ancient.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To observe and scrutinize the movements of centuries, the characters of personages, the vacillations in counsels, the subterranean conduits of actions [...].
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[To discover] the true motives hidden under pretexts, the secrets of state.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[To report things] with as much freedom as sincerity [...] is an immense and delicate work, which demands as much judgment as activity.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
All very ancient events are uncertain, and it is not without danger that one writes the history of more modern times.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Most write only poor and popular accounts, which are the disgrace of history.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others hastily stitch together small accounts and small commentaries, from which they form a fabric full of inequalities.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Some, too fond of their own wit, audaciously invent facts.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others do not so much impress upon things the image of their mind as that of their passions, never losing sight of the interest of their party.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
There are those who everywhere mix in [...] the political reflections in which they delight, [...] interrupting the thread of the narrative at every turn.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is a constant that nothing is rarer to find among human writings than a well-made history, complete in all its points.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
We can regard science as a kind of monster, since it excites the admiration, or rather the stupid astonishment of the ignorant who see it as a sort of prodigy.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
Sciences and their inventions spread immediately and fly everywhere; for science is communicated as easily as light.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
The principles and arguments of the sciences penetrate the mind, seize it and master it to such an extent that it remains subjugated [...] and cannot resist conviction.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
All science seems to be placed on a steep mountain [...], it is regarded as something sublime and elevated.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
In the pilgrimage of this life, man finds everywhere the opportunity to learn and subjects for meditation.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
As long as the goal of meditations and research is limited to the sole pleasure of knowing, [...] the understanding is at ease and no necessity presses it.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
When one must apply theory to practice, [...] these riddles are no longer an amusement, and if one cannot solve them, they become a source of anxiety.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
Any man who only meddles in affairs he understands reaches his goal, [...] and every skilled craftsman commands his work.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
The proper aim and ultimate end of true philosophy is to reign over all beings, over natural bodies, over remedies, over machines [...].
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
Any man who has managed to deeply understand human nature can always be the architect of his own fortune, and is born to command.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
When the most abstruse truths are once well clarified [...], the most mediocre mind is able to understand them.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
When men wish to solve riddles [...], their haste and impatience cause them to miss the solution.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
He who knows how to think, reigns visibly or invisibly over all those who only know how to speak or act.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
To be truly clever, one must avoid appearing so and sometimes even seem a fool.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
To excel in theory, one must resolve to be inferior to many others in practice; and what one gains on one side, one loses on the other.
1609
Source: The Wisdom of the Ancients (Bacon)
Civil history, which by its importance and authority, holds the first rank among human writings.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To its faith are committed the examples of our ancestors, the vicissitudes of things, the foundations of civil prudence [...].
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To the importance of the undertaking is joined the difficulty, which is no less.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To carry one's mind back into the past, and make it, so to speak, ancient [...] is an immense and delicate work.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[The historian must] observe and scrutinize the movements of centuries, the characters of personages, the vacillations in councils [...].
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[One must discover] the true motives hidden under pretexts, the secrets of state.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
All very ancient events are uncertain, and [...] it is not without danger that one writes the history of more modern times.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Most [historians] write only poor and popular accounts, which are the disgrace of history.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others skim over everything, and attach themselves only to the bulk of events.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others, on the contrary, go running after the most minute details, which have no influence on the substance of actions.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Some, too enamored of their own minds, audaciously invent facts.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others do not so much impress upon things the image of their mind as that of their passions, never losing sight of the interest of their party [...].
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
There are those who mix in everywhere [...] the political reflections in which they delight, throwing themselves into all sorts of digressions.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Others who lack sense [...] pile speech upon speech [...] and lose themselves in endless narrations.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is certain that nothing is rarer among human writings than a history that is well-made and accomplished in all its points.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
One of the most powerful causes that have hindered the progress of science [...] is the recklessness of those whom excessive confidence in their own minds [...] has led to dogmatize about nature.
1620
Source: New Organon
The very vigor of mind [...] that enabled them to validate their opinions, only made them more capable of extinguishing in their disciples all ardor for new research.
1620
Source: New Organon
To finally know if one can indeed know anything, it was necessary, instead of arguing on this point, to decide it by experience.
1620
Source: New Organon
Imagining that, to penetrate the secrets of nature, it was enough to meditate with obstinacy, to turn one's mind, so to speak, in every direction, and to keep it in perpetual agitation.
1620
Source: New Organon
It is a matter [...] of establishing degrees of certainty, of supporting the senses [...], but rejecting almost all the product of the first operations of the mind that immediately follow sensations.
1620
Source: New Organon
The rules of dialectics, applied too late, [...] serve rather to fix errors than to discover truth.
1620
Source: New Organon
There remains, then, a single resource [...]: it is to start anew all the work of the human understanding, to never leave it to itself, but to take hold of it from the very beginning.
1620
Source: New Organon
It is with extravagant zeal and powerless efforts that men gather to perform intellectual work, expecting everything [...] from the superiority of genius.
1620
Source: New Organon
In any operation performed by the hand of man, if one does not resort to instruments and machines, one can neither extend the strength of individuals nor make them mutually supportive.
1620
Source: New Organon
Our goal is to open to the understanding an entirely new path, one that the ancients neither explored nor even knew.
1620
Source: New Organon
We claim only the role of a guide, which is certainly not to aim for great authority, and which implies more good fortune than talent and superiority.
1620
Source: New Organon
[Our philosophy] does not flatter the human mind by marrying the prejudices with which it is filled, [...] and it can only be grasped through its effects and its utility.
1620
Source: New Organon
In a word, let us distinguish between an art of cultivating sciences and an art of inventing them.
1620
Source: New Organon
If there exists a courageous mortal who has a true desire, not to remain nailed to the discoveries already made [...], but to add to these inventions himself [...], let him deign to join us.
1620
Source: New Organon
Let us call one of these two paths or methods 'anticipations of the mind,' and the other, 'interpretation of nature'.
1620
Source: New Organon
One of the most powerful causes that have hindered the progress of science and philosophy is temerity.
1620
Source: New Organon
Ambition and the desire to distinguish oneself have led [some] to dogmatize about nature as if it were a sufficiently explored subject.
1620
Source: New Organon
An excessive confidence in one's own mind [...] leads to dogmatizing.
1620
Source: New Organon
The very vigor of mind and force of eloquence [...] only make one more capable of extinguishing in disciples all ardor for new research.
1620
Source: New Organon
If they have been useful through the productions of their own genius, [certain thinkers] have been a hundred times more harmful by enervating other geniuses.
1620
Source: New Organon
[Certain thinkers are] more harmful by enervating other geniuses or diverting them from their true course.
1620
Source: New Organon
Those who [...] asserted that nothing can be known with certainty, [propagate] a discouraging opinion.
1620
Source: New Organon
The physician, or the politician, whose prognostics are almost always right [...] gives a very clear proof of his talent and capacity.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
How many events it is enough to predict for them to take place.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The condition [of advisors] is unfortunate [...] when they advise a present sacrifice whose advantages are certain and lasting but distant.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
There exist well-known [remedies]; but the gradation to be followed in administering them is so delicate [...] that very few people are able to benefit from them.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[A remedy is] certain in the hands of a good practitioner [...] but [it is a] deadly instrument in the hands of an ignorant person.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
In the middle of a piece of amber [...] one sometimes sees insects that have been perfectly preserved there [...] as in a mausoleum.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
One could use [amber] to preserve [...] the bodies of illustrious men. This material [...] is quite rare; but great men are even rarer.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[There is] that part of adornment which consists of strangling one's limbs with very tight clothing [...] in order to have a casual look.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
An excellent method for conquering liberty, to begin by imprisoning oneself in one's clothes!
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Were souls all created together at the origin of the world? [...] Questions, as one can see, no less useful than easy to solve.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[Magic] is found everywhere for those who want to see it there.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is a sophism which consists in concluding from the fact that we give the same name to very different phenomena, that they are identical or similar.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
[It is the sophism of those] who believe they can explain diverse phenomena by assimilating them to those with which they have been most occupied.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is always the astronomer who thinks he sees on the moon the mouse that is in his telescope.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
no protection has ever preserved a Book from the blows of Criticism.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
How sweet it is to meet again after so long an absence and to renew an old friendship when one least thinks of it!
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
The desire to travel took hold of me; and far from stifling it at its birth, [...] I lent an ear to all that could strengthen it.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
we will fulfill all the duties that humanity inspires in us.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
to remain hidden and invisible, while at the same time being ignorant of nothing concerning others, was a thing that belonged rather to spirits [...] than to men.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
The purpose of our foundation is to know the causes [...] and the secret virtues that nature contains [...]; to give to the empire of the human mind all the extension it can have.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
We trade [...] not to win gold, or silver, [...] but to acquire the first of God's creatures, which is Light.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
the nation having for a maxim, that the King is a debtor only to those who multiply his subjects.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
lust being like a furnace, which blazes up [...] if any outlet is left for the flames; and whose fire is extinguished absolutely, as soon as it is enclosed.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
after God and religion, this respect [that one owes to oneself] is the most powerful brake there is to prevent us from falling into vice.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
[A monarch] applied himself solely to marking his reign by the perfect felicity of his People.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
an extraordinary man, who, charged with the most thorny affairs of a great Kingdom, cultivated the sciences and arts with more care [...] than even those who make this glorious occupation their principal business.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
Marriage is established to serve as a remedy for concupiscence; and concupiscence in turn is like a goad that drives one to marriage.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
we flattered ourselves that we were not far from land, not doubting that the Sea [...] might contain within it islands and continents of which no one had yet heard.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
[The concept] presupposes a perfect knowledge of all the best of antiquity [...] and yet [it is] the fruit of his vigils, his meditations, and his own research.
1627
Source: The New Atlantis
As for poetry, it is but a kind of learned dream.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Science is like water. [...] some comes from heaven; others spring from the earth.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
All science is composed of two kinds of knowledge: one is inspired by divinity; the other derives its origin from the senses.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Nature strikes the understanding with a direct ray. Divinity [...] strikes it with a refracted ray. Lastly, man, shown and presented to himself, strikes it with a reflected ray.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The divisions of the sciences are not at all like different lines that coincide at a single point, but rather like the branches of a tree, which unite in a single trunk.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is in the smallest things that nature best reveals herself.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Everything changes, nothing perishes.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
One prevents the destruction of a thing by bringing it back to its principles.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The most dissolute men [...] corrupt public morals less than those whose vices are allied with some virtues, and who are only partly wicked.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
A dissonance that suddenly resolves into a chord makes the harmony more pleasing.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Give to faith what belongs to faith.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The works of God depict [...] the wisdom and power of the author [...], but they in no way trace his image.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The investigation of final causes is sterile, and, like a virgin consecrated to God, it bears no fruit.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The sciences are like pyramids, of which history and experience are the sole base.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Those who, from the moment they see nothing but the sky and the sea, imagine that there is no more land beyond their horizon, [are] very cowardly navigators.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The more incredible and dissonant a divine mystery is, the more honor one gives to God in believing it, and the more glorious is the victory of faith.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is something more meritorious and nobler to believe than to know, at least in the way we know in this life.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
In science, the human mind obeys the action of sensation [...]; whereas, in faith, it obeys the action of the soul, which is the nobler agent.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The greater part of the moral law is too sublime for the natural light to rise so high.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Religion, whether in relation to mysteries or to morals, depends entirely on divine revelation.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
Once the main dogmas and principles of religion have been [...] entirely removed from the examination of reason; only then is it permissible to deduce [...] consequences from them.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
We see that, in games [...] the first rules, the first laws are purely positive, purely conventional, rules that must be adopted purely and simply, and without dispute.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To seek the material earth and sky in the divine word [...] is to seek among eternal things that which is but fleeting.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
To seek theology in philosophy is [...] to seek the living among the dead; [...] to seek philosophy in theology is nothing other than to seek the dead among the living.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The bonds of Christian communion are thus marked: one faith, one baptism, and not a single rite, a single opinion.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
It is not peace, but war, schism, that is to the taste of most.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The garment of the church is a garment of many colors.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The sweetest and most wholesome doctrines are those that flow from the scriptures gently expressed, and which have no tinge of controversy or commonplaces.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
In those points where I have grasped the truth, I have some hope that if, on a first reading, some doubt arises [...], on a second reading, the answer will present itself.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
As we owe the best things to those who had the merit of beginning them, let it be enough for us to have had the courage to clear the way and sow for posterity.
1623
Source: Of the Dignity and Advancement of Learning
The works of wisdom surpass those of valor in the importance, extent, and duration of their effects.
1620
Source: New Organon
A [...] feeling of the inevitable necessity of dying incites men to aspire [...] to another kind of eternity, by immortalizing their name through actions [...] that leave a long memory.
1620
Source: New Organon
The sweetness of marriage and the tender cares of fatherhood are so many obstacles that divert men from high enterprises.
1620
Source: New Organon
At the sound of arms the laws fall silent, and, as men return to their depraved inclinations, the fields are ravaged and the cities overturned.
1620
Source: New Organon
The total quantity of matter is always the same and is susceptible to neither increase nor decrease.
1620
Source: New Organon
If a minister of nature [...] takes pains to do it a kind of violence [...], then matter [...] turns in every direction to escape, undergoing the strangest metamorphoses.
1620
Source: New Organon
Let men not flatter themselves [...] into imagining that after having distinguished themselves by a thousand proofs of talent and virtue they will be assured of general esteem.
1620
Source: New Organon
If they are dealing with people [...] who have only pride joined with much malignity [...], let them be well persuaded that they must begin by divesting themselves of all that can bring them honor.
1620
Source: New Organon
Love appears to be but the appetite or stimulus of matter, or, to develop our thought a little more, the natural motion of the atom.
1620
Source: New Organon
This force [...] is itself without cause, and consequently inexplicable.
1620
Source: New Organon
There is no jealousy more bitter and more deadly than that of men of this class [distinguished artists].
1620
Source: New Organon
Human life [...] owes almost everything [to the mechanical arts]. However, it is from the same source that the instruments of vice and even the instruments of death are derived.
1620
Source: New Organon
The labyrinth is a very ingenious emblem of the nature of mechanics in general.
1620
Source: New Organon
The mechanical arts [...] are like so many two-edged swords that serve sometimes to do evil, sometimes to remedy it.
1620
Source: New Organon
When art [...] does [...] violence to nature [...], rarely are the efforts it makes to vanquish it [...] crowned with success, and it almost never achieves its principal goal.
1620
Source: New Organon