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
return looks painting
If I go to the National Gallery and I look at one of the great paintings that excite me there, it's not so much the painting that excites me as that the painting unlocks all kinds of valves of sensation within me which return me to life more violently.
people looks portraiture
If my people look as if they're in a dreadful fix, it's because I can't get them out of a technical dilemma.
men looks blind
Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
true-friend book looks
For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble.
leaving slime looks
I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail leaving its trail of the human presence... as a snail leaves its slime.
home house looks
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.
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.
believe consider contradict histories men nor weigh
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider . . . Histories make men wise.