110+ Francis Bacon Quotes On Reading, Books And Nature

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He was a champion of modern scientific method and is known for his advocacy of empiricism. Bacon is often credited as the father of modern science and the scientific method, and is considered one of the fathers of empiricism. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Francis Bacon on love, reading, books.

Top 10 Francis Bacon Quotes

1. Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
2. Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.
3. There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
4. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
5. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.
6. Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
7. Let the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind
8. 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.
9. Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
10. Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Francis Bacon Image Quotes

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. — Francis Bacon

Wise men make more opportunities than they find. — Francis Bacon

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. — Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. — Francis Bacon

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. — Francis Bacon

A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Short Quotes

• A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
• Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.
• A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison.
• The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.
• The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
• A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
• Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.
• The wonder of a single snowflake outweighs the wisdom of a million meteorologists.
• If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
• A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.

Francis Bacon Quotes About Love

God loveth the clean. — Francis Bacon

It is impossible to love and to be wise. — Francis Bacon

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. — Francis Bacon

Gardening is the purest of human pleasures. — Francis Bacon

Important families are like potatoes. The best parts are underground. — Francis Bacon

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. — Francis Bacon

Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it. — Francis Bacon

All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at the same time they want to be free. But nobody is free. — Francis Bacon

There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death . . . Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it. — Francis Bacon

The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Reading

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. — Francis Bacon

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. — Francis Bacon

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends. — Francis Bacon

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. — Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man. — Francis Bacon

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. — Francis Bacon

It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. — Francis Bacon

Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he does not. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Books

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books. — Francis Bacon

Books will speak plain when counselors blanch. — Francis Bacon

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. — Francis Bacon

But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation. — Francis Bacon

Let no one think or maintain that a person can search too far or be too well studied in either the book of God's word or the book of God's works. — Francis Bacon

The images of mens wits and knowledge remain in books. They generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages — Francis Bacon

There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power. — Francis Bacon

For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble. — Francis Bacon

God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Nature

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. — Francis Bacon

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it. — Francis Bacon

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her. — Francis Bacon

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding. — Francis Bacon

Atheism leads a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue. — Francis Bacon

Those herbs which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but, being trodden upon and crushed, are three; that is, burnet, wild thyme and watermints. Therefore, you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread. — Francis Bacon

The human understanding of its own nature is prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds. — Francis Bacon

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. — Francis Bacon

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. — Francis Bacon

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Knowledge

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel nor man come in danger by it. — Francis Bacon

The partitions of knowledge are not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch not in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs. — Francis Bacon

Ipsa scientia potestas est. (Knowledge itself is power.) — Francis Bacon

Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule. — Francis Bacon

For knowledge itself is power. — Francis Bacon

Knowledge and human power are synonymous. — Francis Bacon

Knowledge is a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. — Francis Bacon

There was a young man in Rome that was very like Augustus Caesar; Augustus took knowledge of it and sent for the man, and asked him "Was your mother never at Rome?" He answered "No Sir; but my father was." — Francis Bacon

Liberty of speech invites and provokes liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man's knowledge. — Francis Bacon

Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or thought of the course of nature; beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Education

Journeys at youth are part of the education; but at maturity, are part of the experience. — Francis Bacon

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. — Francis Bacon

They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art. — Francis Bacon

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Writing

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. — Francis Bacon

But I account the use that a man should seek of the publishing of his own writings before his death, to be but an untimely anticipation of that which is proper to follow a man, and not to go along with him. — Francis Bacon

Who then to frail mortality shall trust But limns the water, or but writes in dust. — Francis Bacon

A forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the face of them who seek to tread it out. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Friendship

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships. — Francis Bacon

The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship. — Francis Bacon

A man cannot speak to his son, but as a father; to his wife, but as a husband; to his enemy, but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak, as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. — Francis Bacon

A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. — Francis Bacon

Friendship maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts. — Francis Bacon

There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals. — Francis Bacon

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom. — Francis Bacon

Friendship redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half. — Francis Bacon

Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home. — Francis Bacon

Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Truth

Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority. — Francis Bacon

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out. — Francis Bacon

Truth is a naked and open daylight — Francis Bacon

The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good. — Francis Bacon

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. — Francis Bacon

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion. — Francis Bacon

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority. — Francis Bacon

Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. — Francis Bacon

Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion. — Francis Bacon

Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Marriage

He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune. — Francis Bacon

Wives are young men's mistresses; companions for middle age, and old men's nurses. — Francis Bacon

Spouses are great impediments to great enterprises. — Francis Bacon

By this means we presume we have established for ever, a true and legitimate marriage between the Empirical and Rational faculty; whose fastidious and unfortunate divorce and separation hath troubled and disordered the whole race and generation of mankind. — Francis Bacon

A man finds himself seven years older the day after his marriage. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Progress.

Laws and Institutions Must Go Hand in Hand with the Progress of the Human Mind. — Francis Bacon

Acorns were good until bread was found. — Francis Bacon

Again men have been kept back as by a kind of enchantment from progress in science by reverence for antiquity, by the authority of men counted great in philosophy, and then by general consent. — Francis Bacon

Again there is another great and powerful cause why the sciences have made but little progress; which is this. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. — Francis Bacon

It is idle to expect any great advancement in science from the superinducing and engrafting of new things upon old. We must begin anew from the very foundations, unless we would revolve for ever in a circle with mean and contemptible progress. — Francis Bacon

But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this-that men despair and think things impossible. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Virtue

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing. — Francis Bacon

Silence is the virtue of fools. — Francis Bacon

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue. — Francis Bacon

It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly, the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands — Francis Bacon

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest — Francis Bacon

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set. — Francis Bacon

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. — Francis Bacon

Consistency is the foundation of virtue. — Francis Bacon

The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. — Francis Bacon

Libraries are as the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Fortune

Ill Fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not. — Francis Bacon

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall. — Francis Bacon

Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible. — Francis Bacon

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied. — Francis Bacon

The mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands. — Francis Bacon

Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands. — Francis Bacon

No man's fortune can be an end worthy of his being. — Francis Bacon

Fortune makes him fool, whom she makes her darling. — Francis Bacon

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small 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. — Francis Bacon

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. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes About Natural

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study. — Francis Bacon

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other. — Francis Bacon

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. — Francis Bacon

Deformed persons commonly take revenge on nature. — Francis Bacon

Brutes by their natural instinct have produced many discoveries, whereas men by discussion and the conclusions of reason have given birth to few or none. — Francis Bacon

As is the garden such is the gardener. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds. — Francis Bacon

This is the foundation of all. We are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what nature does or may be made to do. — Francis Bacon

The study of nature with a view to works is engaged in by the mechanic, the mathematician, the physician, the alchemist, and the magician; but by all as things now are with slight endeavour and scanty success. — Francis Bacon

Nature is commanded by obeying her. — Francis Bacon

Many secrets of art and nature are thought by the unlearned to be magical. — Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Famous Quotes And Sayings

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. — Francis Bacon

Wise men make more opportunities than they find. — Francis Bacon

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. — Francis Bacon

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other. — Francis Bacon

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. — Francis Bacon

A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison. — Francis Bacon

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying. — Francis Bacon

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. — Francis Bacon

They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground. — Francis Bacon

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul. — Francis Bacon

the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself. — Francis Bacon

Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind. — Francis Bacon

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses. — Francis Bacon

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior. — Francis Bacon

The colors that show best by candlelight are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green. — Francis Bacon

It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less. — Francis Bacon

In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts. — Francis Bacon

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. — Francis Bacon

I loathe my own face, and I've done self-portraits because I've had nobody else to do. — Francis Bacon

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much. — Francis Bacon

God's first creature, which was light. — Francis Bacon

There is a cunning which we in England call the rning of the cat in the pan. — Francis Bacon

I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail of the human presence and memory trace of past events, as the snail leaves its slime. — Francis Bacon

All colors will agree in the dark. — Francis Bacon

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat" in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he says it as if another had said it to him. — Francis Bacon

We rise to great heights by a winding staircase of small steps. — Francis Bacon

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god. — Francis Bacon

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self. — Francis Bacon

[Science is] the labor and handicraft of the mind. — Francis Bacon

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. — Francis Bacon

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. — Francis Bacon

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. — Francis Bacon

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. — Francis Bacon

By far the best proof is experience. — Francis Bacon

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes. — Francis Bacon

Anger makes dull men witty -- but it keeps them poor. — Francis Bacon

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable. — Francis Bacon

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety. — Francis Bacon

Money makes a good servant, but a bad master. — Francis Bacon

I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if I drew something first, then my paintings would be illustrations of drawings. — Francis Bacon

To choose time is to save time. — Francis Bacon

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it. — Francis Bacon

Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is. — Francis Bacon

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave. — Francis Bacon

The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery at first it deceives, at last it betrays — Francis Bacon

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. — Francis Bacon

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again. — Francis Bacon

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot. — Francis Bacon

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures. — Francis Bacon

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees. — Francis Bacon

All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light. — Francis Bacon

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open. — Francis Bacon

I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. — Francis Bacon

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative. — Francis Bacon

The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one. — Francis Bacon

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears. — Francis Bacon

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress. — Francis Bacon

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity. — Francis Bacon

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. — Francis Bacon

But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. — Francis Bacon

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. — Francis Bacon

Life Lessons by Francis Bacon

1. Francis Bacon taught that knowledge is power, and that one should strive to acquire knowledge in order to better one's life.
2. He also believed that one should be humble and not be too proud of their accomplishments.
3. Lastly, Bacon believed that one should be open to learning from their mistakes and use them as an opportunity to grow.