Top 669 Quotes & Sayings by Francis Bacon

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English philosopher Francis Bacon.

Last updated on April 13, 2025.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban,, also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. His works are seen as contributing to the scientific method and remained influential through the later stages of the scientific revolution.

English - Philosopher | January 22, 1561 - April 9, 1626

Source: Wikipedia

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

Francis Bacon

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

Francis Bacon

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

Francis Bacon

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Francis Bacon

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

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

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

Francis Bacon

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Francis Bacon

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

Francis Bacon

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

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

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

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

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

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Francis Bacon

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

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

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Francis Bacon

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

Francis Bacon

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

Silence is the virtue of fools.

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

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Francis Bacon

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

Francis Bacon

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Francis Bacon

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Opportunity makes a thief.

Francis Bacon

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Francis Bacon

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Francis Bacon

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

Francis Bacon

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

Francis Bacon

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

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

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

Francis Bacon

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.

Francis Bacon

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

Francis Bacon

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Francis Bacon

Science is but an image of the truth.

Francis Bacon

The remedy is worse than the disease.

Francis Bacon

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Francis Bacon