English philosopher (1561-1626)
Because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
In charity there is no excess.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," Essays
If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Fortune," Essays
Virtue is like precious odors -- most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Adversity," Essays
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Studies," Essays
Art is man added to Nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Descriptio Globi Intellectus
Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.
FRANCIS BACON, Exempla Antithetorum
Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Revenge," Essays
Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.
FRANCIS BACON
De Augmentis Scientiarum
Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Truth," Essays
Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Nature in Men," Essays
The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a Siren, sometimes like a Fury.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Death hath this also; that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature; and ... mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but embaseth it.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins them.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays