Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC KCwas an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth21 January 1561
doth lay man open question surprise unexpected
A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open
delivered delivering disjointed distinct doth free knowledge leave man several turn wit
This delivering of knowledge in distinct and disjointed aphorisms doth leave the wit of man more free to turn and toss, and to make use of that which is so delivered to more several purposes and applications
adversity best discover doth prosperity
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.
desires doth mind raise
Poesy was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind by submitting the shews of things to the desires of the mind.
doth higher shows
He doth like the ape, that the higher he clymbes the more he shows his ars
add doth lie mixture pleasure
A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.
What then remains, but that we still should cry,/ Not to be born, or being born, to die?
cry remains
What then remains but that we still should cry for being born, and, being born, to die?
body curious harp medicine music office poets reduce tune
The poets did well to conjoin Music And Medicine in Apollo: because the office of medicine is but to tune this curious harp of man's body and to reduce it to harmony.
curious harp medicine music office poet poets tune
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.
delight far knowledge nature pleasure
The pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature
caused curious delight fruitful labour large leave natural rich speak time wander
When you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires. This is not caused by any natural defect, but first for want of election, when you, having a large and fruitful mind, should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken. Rich soils are often to be weeded.
gives past structure
Words, when written, crystallize history; their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past
love loneliness real-friends
For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.