Quotes from Francis Bacon

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

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other.

A man who contemplates revenge keeps his wounds green.

Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession.

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

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.

For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages.

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

...truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion...

It cannot be denied, but outward accidents conduce much to fortune; favour, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue: but chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands: "Faber quisque fortunæ suæ," saith the poet...

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies than in any constant belief.

Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns: children, women, old folks, sick folks.

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

A man's Nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

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

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

Many a man's strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

I work for posterity, these things requiring ages for their accomplishment.

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

One always starts work with the subject, no matter how tenuous it is, and one constructs an artificial structure by which one can trap the reality of the subject-matter that one has started from.

I use all sorts of things to work with: old brooms, old sweaters, and all kinds of peculiar tools and materials... I paint to excite myself, and make something for myself.