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
men charity ifs
Defer not charities till death; for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.
time knows ifs
If you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not.
apes habit ifs
Habit, if wisely and skillfully formed, becomes truly a second nature; but unskillfully and unmethodically depicted, it will be as it were an ape of nature, which imitates nothing to the life, but only clumsily and awkwardly
paint ifs
If you can talk about it, why paint it?
demonstration experiments ifs
But the best demonstration by far is experience, if it go not beyond the actual experiment.
hills ifs
If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.
masters servant ifs
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.
cat shore ifs
A cat will never drown if she sees the shore.
friends-or-friendship sincere solitude worst
The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.
faculties fortunate fortune giving light men number rather scarce seen smaller
The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a number of smaller stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together; so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate
man wise
The wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
cannot discovery greater nature since subtlety suffice
Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument.
adversity comforts fears prosperity
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
adversity comforts fears prosperity
Prosperity is not without many fears and distaste; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.