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
healthful honourable kingdom natural neither nor true war
No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic, and certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.
base beasts body certainly creature deny destroy god kin man
They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he is not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature
kings knowledge thinking
A king that would not feel his crown too heavy for him, must wear it every day; but if he think it too light, he knoweth not of what metal it is made.
men riches kindred
Men leave their riches either to their kindred or their friends, and moderate portions prosper best in both.
kings son too-much
That conceit, elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in his instructions to the King, his son, "that fortune hath somewhat the nature of a woman, that if she be too much wooed she is the farther off.
may statistics kind
And as for Mixed Mathematics, I may only make this prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as nature grows further disclosed.
kindness men grace
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
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.
adversity best discover doth prosperity
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.