Francis Bacon Quotes

English philosopher and statesman (1561–1626)

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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman and essayist. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. His general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical methodology makes Bacon the father of the scientific method. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical details of which are still central in debates about science and methodology today.

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Alternative Names: Franciscus Bacon • Francis Bacon of Verulamius • Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam • Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 • Francis Bacon, Viscount Saint Alban

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Let every student of nature take this as a rule, — that whatever his mind seizes and dwells upon with peculiar satisfaction is to be held in suspicion.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

We are wont to call that human reasoning which we apply to Nature the anticipation of Nature (as being rash and premature) and that which is properly deduced from things the interpretation of Nature.

Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he doth not.

Great art is always a way of concentrating, reinventing what is called fact, what we know of our existence- a reconcentration… tearing away the veils, the attitudes people acquire of their time and earlier time. Really good artists tear down those veils

There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried.

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

He that is only real had need have exceeding great parts of virtue, as the stone had need be rich that is set without foil.

Aristotle (…) a mere bond-servant to his logic, thereby rendering it contentious and well nigh useless.

But the best demonstration by far is experience, if it go not beyond the actual experiment.

It Is The Wisdom Of Crocodiles, That Shed Tears When They Would Devour

He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great, nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though often by prevailings.

İnsanın en büyük dalkavuğu kendisidir, bu dalkavukluktan kurtulmanın en iyi yolu da bir dostun içtenliğidir.

The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.

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 in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few books to be read wholly, and with diligence and attraction.