Francis Bacon Men Quotations

The worst men often give the best advice.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

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.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

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

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

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

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

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

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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. Only men must beware, that they carry their anger rather with scorn, than with fear; so that they may seem rather to be above the injury, than below it; which is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it.

Men commonly think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and imbibed opinions, but generally act according to custom

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to by their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.

Men in great place are thrice servants, - servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.

He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question, when a man should marry? 'A young man not yet, an elder man not at all

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

Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. 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.

It is nothing won to admit men with an open door, yet to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance.

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place

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

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider . . . Histories make men wise.

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

Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

A little science estranges a man from God; a lot of science brings him back.

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.

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

The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body and reduce it to harmony.

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.

Art is man added to Nature.

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.

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."

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.

Another argument of hope may be drawn from this-that some of the inventions already known are such as before they were discovered it could hardly have entered any man's head to think of; they would have been simply set aside as impossible. For in conjecturing what may be men set before them the example of what has been, and divine of the new with an imagination preoccupied and colored by the old; which way of forming opinions is very fallacious, for streams that are drawn from the springheads of nature do not always run in the old channels.

The master of superstition, is the people; and in all superstition, wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.

Vices of the time; vices of the man.

Medical men do not know the drugs they use, nor their prices.

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.

The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel.

It is by discourse that men associate; and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obsesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations, wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into innumerable and inane controversies and fancies.

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.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men-the master of superstition is the people; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reverse order.

Above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis, when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.

Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.

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.

Such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener.

The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.

The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions.

In revenge a man is but even with his enemy; for it is a princely thing to pardon, and Solomon saith it is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression.

Man was formed for society.

For it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast.

He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age.

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.

Mark what a generosity and courage (a dog) will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to him is instead of a God

Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto.

Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts.

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.

Men leave their riches either to their kindred or their friends, and moderate portions prosper best in both.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune.

In mathematics I can report no deficiency, except it be that men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of Pure Mathematics.

Come home to men's business and bosoms.

The world's a bubble, and the life of man, Less than a span.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections... What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

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.

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

All authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either upon an art, or upon a man.

Lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle ways and witty reconcilements,--as if they would make an arbitrament between God and man.

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

Custom is the principle magistrate of man's life.

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.

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

Such philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of subtile, sublime, or delectable speculation but shall be operative to the endowment and betterment of man's life.

God Almighty first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks. And a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.

There is no doubt but men of genius and leisure may carry our method to greater perfection, but, having had long experience, we have found none equal to it for the commodiousness it affords in working with the Understanding.

One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.

Men are rather beholden ... generally to chance or anything else, than to logic, for the invention of arts and sciences.

Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment

But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature; neither his understanding nor his power extends further.