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Quotes by Bacon
65 quotations from The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1896), with the subject each one is filed under.
Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.— filed under Affliction
To take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs.— filed under Ambition
The wisdom of our ancestors.— filed under Ancestry
All authority must be out of a man's self, turned * * * either upon an art, or upon a man.— filed under Authority
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.— filed under Belief
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; Adversity is the blessing of the New.— filed under Blessings
Learning-Books. Books are delightful when prosperity happily smiles; when adversity threatens, they are inseparable comforters. They give strength to human compacts, nor are grave opinions brought forward without books. Arts and sciences, the benefits of which no mind can calculate, depend upon books. t. RICHARD AUNGERVYLE (Richard De Bury)-Philobiblon. Ch. I. You, O Books, are the golden vessels of the temple, the arms of the clerical militia with which the missiles of the most wicked are destroyed; fruitful olives, vines of Engaddi, figtrees knowing no sterility; burning lamps to be ever held in the hand. u. RICHARD AUNGERVYLE (Richard De Bury)-Philobiblon. Ch. XV. Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.— filed under Books
Amendment of Laws. But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.— filed under Books
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. C.— filed under Books
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity there is no excess, neither can angel or man come in danger by it.— filed under Charity
For cleanness of body was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to God, to society, and to ourselves.— filed under Cleanliness
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and Adversity is not without comforts and hopes.— filed under Consolation
God Almighty first planted a Garden.— filed under Country Life
It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.— filed under Abd-El-Kader
Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.— filed under Abd-El-Kader
I hold every man a debtor to his profession. γ.— filed under Debt
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.— filed under Education
Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again, and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, if the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.— filed under Faith
A wilderness of sweets. The breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand.— filed under Flirting
But chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.— filed under Fortune
Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune: for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.— filed under Fortune
Like strawberry wives, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones.— filed under Fruits
God Almighty first planted a garden.— filed under Garden
Because indeed there was never law, or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth.— filed under Goodness
Charles Francis Adams' Life of Adams. Vol. III. P. 171. Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls. Attributed to ALCÆUS by ARISTIDES- Orations. Vol. II. (Jebb's edition). Austin's trans. States are great engines moving slowly.— filed under Government
Fly. We see how flies, and spiders, and the like, body of get a sepulchre in amber, more durable than the monument and embalming of the body of any king.— filed under Insects-Flea
Spider. We see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.— filed under Insects-Louse
Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.— filed under Judges
For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself.— filed under Knowledge
Knowledge bloweth up, but charity buildeth up.— filed under Knowledge
Knowledge is power.— filed under Knowledge
Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and lastly his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust.— filed under Learning
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.— filed under Learning
Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.— filed under Libraries
The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man less than a span : In his conception wretched, from the womb so to the tomb; Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years with cares and fears. Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust.— filed under Life
Man only,-rash, refined, presumptuous Man- Starts from his rank, and mars Creation's plan! Born the free heir of nature's wide domain, To art's strict limits bounds his narrow'd reign; Resigns his native rights for meaner things, For Faith and Fetters, Laws and Priests and Kings. Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. The Progress of Man. L. 55. My Lord St. Albans said that wise nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high; and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.— filed under Man
He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.— filed under Matrimony
I had rather believe all the fables in the Legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.— filed under Mind
Untrodden Ways. I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a helpand ornament thereunto.— filed under Obscurity
Architecture. Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had.— filed under Occupations-Alchemy
Register. Adopted 1802. Wm. W. STORY'S Life of Joseph Story. Vol. I. Ch. VI. Law. One of the Seven was wont to say: "That laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great brake through."— filed under Occupations-Law
Medicine. A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.— filed under Occupations-Law
Publishing. But I account the use that a man should seek of the publishing of his own writings before his death, to be but an untimely anticipation of that which is proper to follow a man, and not to go along with him.— filed under Occupations-Printing
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.— filed under Philosophy
Sabbath Keeping. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."— filed under Policy
Come home to men's business and bosoms.— filed under Proverbs
The remedy is worse than the disease.— filed under Proverbs
The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.— filed under Prosperity
Reading maketh a full man.— filed under Reading
Casulanus. The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions.— filed under Religion
There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth.— filed under Religion
Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.— filed under Revenge
For it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast.— filed under Society
But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. 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.— filed under Solitude
And let him be sure to leave other men their turns to speak.— filed under Speech
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.— filed under Speech
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.— filed under Study
SUN (THE). The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.— filed under Summer
Travelling. Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.— filed under Travelling
The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel.— filed under Trust
June. Goethe. But no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon on the vantage ground of Truth.— filed under Truth
Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.— filed under Virtue
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.— filed under Virtue
Wives are young men's mistresses; com panions for middle age; and old men's nurses.— filed under Wife
Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business.— filed under Youth