Francis Bacon Quotes
Francis Bacon was a 16th and early 17th-century English philosopher, statesman, and essayist, regarded as one of the founders of the modern scientific method and a major figure of early modern philosophy. His 1620 work Novum Organum proposed a new method of inductive inquiry to replace the deductive logic of Aristotle, and his sweeping vision of organised collaborative scientific research, sketched in The New Atlantis, prefigured the modern research institution. The quotes below are attributed to Francis Bacon, organized by topic.
Francis Bacon on Knowledge
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Knowledge is power.”
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.”
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Francis Bacon on Life
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper.”
Francis Bacon on Nature
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”
Francis Bacon on Politics
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“The remedy is worse than the disease.”
Francis Bacon on Virtue
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Attributed to Francis Bacon:
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”