Francis Bacon Quotes

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and see the ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth, and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

قد لا أعتقد بجميع القصص و الأساطير التي جاءت بالكتب الدينية ولكن لا يمكن أن أعتقد بعدم وجود عقل مدبر لهذا العالم. إن القليل من الفلسفة ينزع بعقل الإنسان إلى الإلحاد ولكن التعمق فيها ينتهي بعقول الناس إلى الإيمان لأن عقل الإنسان عندما ينظر إلى الأسباب الثانوية المبعثرة قد يتوقف عندها ولا يتجاوزها، ولكن عندما يشاهد تسلسلها و اتحادها، و اتصالها بعضها بعضا ينتهي به ذلك إلى الإيمان بوجود العناية الإلهية.

The worst solitute is to be destitute of true friendship.

Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.

But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this — that men despair and think things impossible.

For this is but to dash the first table against the second; and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed: Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum.

Judges ought to remember that their office is to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law.

Sense sends to Imagination before Reason have judged, & Reason sends over to Imagination before decree can be acted.

The punishing of wits enhances their authority.

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

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Knowledge is power. The real test of knowledge is not whether it is true but whether it empowers us. Scientists usually assume that no theory is 100% correct. Truth, consequently, is a poor test for knowledge. The real test is utility. A theory that enables us to do new things constitutes knowledge.

If thou shalt aspire after the glorious acts of men, thy working shall be accompanied with compunction and strife, and thy remembrance followed with distaste and upbraidings; and justly doth it come to pass towards thee, O man, that since thou, which art God's work, doest him no reason in yielding him well-pleasing service, even thine own works also should reward thee with the like fruit of bitterness.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

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.