Quotes by Francis Bacon

“Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested.”

“Science is but an image of the truth.”

“Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.”

“Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.”

“The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.”

“Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”

“People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.”

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

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

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

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

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.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

I would address one general admonition to all, that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or for fame, or power, or any of these inferior things, but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from lust of power that the Angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell, but of charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man come in danger by it.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics.

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.

Knowledge itself is power

A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.