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.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Paul van Somer I / Formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Franciscus Bacon
•
Francis Bacon of Verulamius
•
Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam
•
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626
•
Francis Bacon, Viscount Saint Alban
Portrait from Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Paul van Somer I / Formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger. Used under Public domain / CC0. Processed and styled by Quotewise.
Unlimited Quote Collections
Organize your favorite quotes without limits. Create themed collections for every occasion with Premium.
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.
Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
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.
