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January 22

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. ~ Douglas Adams
2005
Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another. You are brothers. ~ Muhammad
2006
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. ~ Robert E. Howard (born 22 January 1906)
2007
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. ~ Francis Bacon (born 22 January 1561)
2008

So, we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~ (born 22 January 1788)

2009
Honor is, or should be, the place of virtue and as in nature, things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. ~ Francis Bacon
2010
Truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction.
~ Lord Byron in Don Juan
2011
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. ~ Francis Bacon
2012
Near this spot
Are deposited the Remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG
~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~
2013
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2014
As a Buddhist, I was trained to be tolerant of everything except intolerance.
~ U Thant ~
2015
If I laugh at any mortal thing,
'Tis that I may not weep…
~ Lord Byron ~
in
~ Don Juan ~
2016
Man, whence is he?
Too bad to be the work of a god, too good for the work of chance.
~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ~
2017
Men must know that in this theater of Man's life it is reserved only for God and Angels to be lookers on.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2018
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2019
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2020
It will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2021
Let great authors have their due, as time, which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, which is, further and further to discover truth.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2022
You can decide what you want to eat for dinner, you can decide to go away for the weekend, and you can decide what clothes you’re going to wear in the morning, but when it comes to artistic things, there’s never a rhyme or reason. It’s, like, they just happen. And they happen when they happen.
~ Meat Loaf ~
  • proposed by Kalki , in regard of his recent death.
2023
I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2024
We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And certainly there is a great difference, between a cunning man, and a wise man; not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There be, that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak men.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
2025
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[edit]

These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves. ~ Francis Bacon (born January 22, 1561)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 11:05, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Great Galileo was debarr'd the Sun
Because he fix'd it; and, to stop his talking,
How Earth could round the solar orbit run,
Found his own legs embargo'd from mere walking:
The man was well-nigh dead, ere men begun
To think his skull had not some need of caulking;
But now, it seems, he's right — his notion just:
No doubt a consolation to his dust.
~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~

  • 3 InvisibleSun 11:05, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 15:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Doing good isn't [that] hard. It's just doing a lot of good that is very hard. If your aims are modest, you can accomplish an awful lot. When your aims become elevated beyond a reasonable level, you not only don't accomplish much, you can cause a great deal of damage. ~ Irving Kristol

  • 2 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work. ~ Irving Kristol

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Patriotism springs from love of the nation’s past; nationalism arises out of the hope for the nation’s future. ~ Irving Kristol

  • 4 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You know what they say - the sweetest word in the English language is revenge. ~ Peter Beard

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 23:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The whole world is a scab. The point is to pick it constructively. ~ Peter Beard

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 23:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I have never believed in war. It is a crime against humanity whether you win or lose. I just read an article in this magazine I have in my hands that one day the moon will fall on the earth, but it is my feeling that until then, we should try to make the world a better place to live in. ~ Hjalmar Schacht

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

When is revolution legal? When it succeeds! ~ August Strindberg

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

By aiming for the impossible, you reach the highest level of the possible. ~ August Strindberg

  • 3 Zarbon 15:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

No more of courts, of triumphs, or of arms,
No more of Valour’s force, or Beauty's charms!
The themes of vulgar lays with just disdain
I leave unsung, the flocks, the amorous swain,
The pleasures of the land, and terrors of the main.
How abject, how inglorious 'tis to lie
Grovelling in dust and darkness, when on high
Empires immense, and rolling worlds of light,
To range their heavenly scenes the muse invite!
~ Richard Blackmore

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

~ John Donne ~
He that defers his charity 'till he is dead, is (if a man weighs it rightly) rather liberal of another man's, than of his own.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Knowledge, that tendeth but to satisfaction, is but as a courtesan, which is for pleasure, and not for fruit or generation.
~ Francis Bacon ~
For a man to love again where he is loved, it is the charity of publicans contracted by mutual profit and good offices; but to love a man's enemies is one of the cunningest points of the law of Christ, and an imitation of the divine nature.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a tarrasse, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Our Saviour himself did first show His power to subdue ignorance, by His conference with the priests and doctors of the law, before He showed His power to subdue nature by His miracles.
~ Francis Bacon ~
There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names — calling the first class, Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For everyone (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature, owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like. So that the spirit of man (according as it is meted out to different individuals) is in fact a thing variable and full of perturbation, and governed as it were by chance. Whence it was well observed by Heraclitus that men look for sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.
~ Francis Bacon ~
There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theater, because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
There is a great difference between the Idols of the human mind and the Ideas of the divine. That is to say, between certain empty dogmas, and the true signatures and marks set upon the works of creation as they are found in nature.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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.
~ 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.
~ Francis Bacon ~
A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.
~ Francis Bacon ~
It appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things.
~ Francis Bacon ~
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Only charity admitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell; Ascendam, et ero similis altissimo: by aspiring to be like God in knowledge, man transgressed and fell; Eritis sicut Dii, scientes bonum et malum: but by aspiring to a similitude of God in goodness or love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall transgress.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule
~ Francis Bacon ~
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.
~ Francis Bacon ~
It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this — that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.
~ Francis Bacon ~
While men are occupied in admiring and applauding the false powers of the mind, they pass by and throw away those true powers which, if it be supplied with the proper aids and can itself be content to wait upon nature instead of vainly affecting to overrule her, are within its reach.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
In obedience to the everlasting love of truth, I have committed myself to the uncertainties and difficulties and solitudes of the ways and, relying on the divine assistance, have upheld my mind both against the shocks and embattled ranks of opinion, and against my own private and inward hesitations and scruples, and against the fogs and clouds of nature, and the phantoms flitting about on every side, in the hope of providing at last for the present and future generations guidance more faithful and secure.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
The sense is like the sun, which reveals the face of earth, but seals and shuts up the face of heaven.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
I would address one general admonition to all — that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things, but for the benefit and use of life, and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from lust of power that the angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell; but of charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man ever come in danger by it.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
Concerning ourselves we speak not; but as touching the matter which we have in hand, this we ask; — that men deem it not to be the setting up of an Opinion, but the performing of a Work; and that they receive this as a certainty; that we are not laying the foundations of any sect or doctrine, but of the profit and dignity of mankind:—Furthermore, that being well disposed to what shall advantage themselves, and putting off factions and prejudices, they take common counsel with us, to the end that being by these our aids and appliances freed and defended from wanderings and impediments, they may lend their hands also to the labours which remain to be performed: — And yet, further, that they be of good hope; neither feign and imagine to themselves this our Reform as something of infinite dimension and beyond the grasp of mortal man, when, in truth, it is of infinite errour, the end and true limit; and is by no means unmindful of the condition of mortality and humanity, not confiding that such a thing can be carried to its perfect close in the space of one single age, but assigning it as a task to a succession of generations.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
There are found in the intellectual as in the terrestrial globe waste regions as well as cultivated ones.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
The senses deceive; but then at the same time they supply the means of discovering their own errors.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
As an uneven mirror distorts the rays of objects according to its own figure and section, so the mind, when it receives impressions of objects through the sense, cannot be trusted to report them truly, but in forming its notions mixes up its own nature with the nature of things.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world; rather may he graciously grant to us to write an apocalypse or true vision of the footsteps of the Creator imprinted on his creatures.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
If all the wits of all the ages had met, or shall hereafter meet together; if the whole human race had applied or shall hereafter apply themselves to philosophy, and the whole earth had been or shall be nothing but academies and colleges and schools of learned men; still without a natural and experimental history such as I am going to prescribe, no progress worthy of the human race could have been made or can be made in philosophy and the sciences.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
Never introduce a controversy unless in a matter of great moment.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
Things which though certainly not true are yet current and much in men's mouths, having either through neglect or from the use of them in similitudes prevailed now for many ages ... these it will not be enough to reject silently; they must be in express words proscribed, that the sciences may be no more troubled with them.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ The Great Instauration ~
Much bending breaks the bow. Much unbending, the mind.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Ornamenta Rationalia ~
The fortune which nobody sees makes a man happy and unenvied.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Ornamenta Rationalia ~
The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Ornamenta Rationalia ~
What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
It is as natural to die, as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful, as the other.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body; and it addeth no small reverence, to men's manners and actions, if they be not altogether open.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
As for talkers and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous withal. For he that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Nuptial love maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it, but wonton love corrupteth and embaseth it.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
The causes and motives of seditions are, innovation in religion; taxes; alteration of laws and customs; breaking of privileges; general oppression; advancement of unworthy persons; strangers; dearths; disbanded soldiers; factions grown desperate; and what soever, in offending people, joineth and knitteth them in a common cause.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Above all things, good policy is to be used, that the treasure and moneys, in a state, be not gathered into few hands. For otherwise a state may have a great stock, and yet starve. And money is like muck, not good except it be spread. This is done, chiefly by suppressing, or at least keeping a strait hand, upon the devouring trades of usury, ingrossing great pasturages, and the like.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
I HAD rather beleeve all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, then that this universall Frame, is without a Minde. And therefore, God never wrought Miracle, to convince Atheisme, because his Ordinary Works convince it. It is true, that a little Philosophy inclineth Mans Minde to Atheisme; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Mens Mindes about to Religion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
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. And therefore, God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
You shall have atheists strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other sects. And, which is most of all, you shall have of them, that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; whereas if they did truly think, that there were no such thing as God, why should they trouble themselves?
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself, above human frailty.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion, as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best, if they go furthest from the superstition, formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad; which commonly is done, when the people is the reformer.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
As the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be. It is like that, which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore measure not dispatch, by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Some, in their discourse, desire rather commendation of wit, in being able to hold all arguments, than of judgment, in discerning what is true; as if it were a praise, to know what might be said, and not, what should be thought.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
As for jest, there be certain things, which ought to be privileged from it; namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, any man's present business of importance, and any case that deserveth pity. Yet there be some, that think their wits have been asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piquant, and to the quick.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit. So saith Solomon, Where much is, there are many to consume it; and what hath the owner, but the sight of it with his eyes? The personal fruition in any man, cannot reach to feel great riches: there is a custody of them; or a power of dole, and donative of them; or a fame of them; but no solid use to the owner.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
~ Francis Bacon ~
in
~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
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.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far....
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.
~ Francis Bacon ~
There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names — calling the first class, Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater. … The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men … all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it. … There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding … words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies. … Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theater, because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 21:58, 21 January 2024 (UTC); this merges and condenses portions of some of the previously related suggestions from Novum Organum Scientiarum into one.
The human understanding is moved by those things most which strike and enter the mind simultaneously and suddenly, and so fill the imagination; and then it feigns and supposes all other things to be somehow, though it cannot see how, similar to those few things by which it is surrounded.
~ Francis Bacon ~
It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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.
~ Francis Bacon ~
The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on "before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: —"Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;" clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory whole, as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested. Therefore from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as has never yet been made), much may be hoped.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Streams that are drawn from the springheads of nature do not always run in the old channels.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.
~ Francis Bacon ~
To God, truly, the Giver and Architect of Forms, and it may be to the angels and higher intelligences, it belongs to have an affirmative knowledge of forms immediately, and from the first contemplation. But this assuredly is more than man can do, to whom it is granted only to proceed at first by negatives, and at last to end in affirmatives, after exclusion has been exhausted.
~ Francis Bacon ~
Let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
He that studieth revenge, keepeth his own wounds green.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Ornamenta Rationalia ~
OR:
This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
Extreme self-lovers will set a man's house on fire, though it were but to roast their eggs.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Ornamenta Rationalia ~
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad."
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~
There is a cunning … which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
~ Francis Bacon ~
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~ Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall ~



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