Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was a great English natural philosopher, statesman, and pioneer of modern scientific thought. Bacon’s abundant writing spanned scientific methodology, religion, moral philosophy, and judicial administration.
Bacon started his political career at age 23 when he became a Member of Parliament. He opposed Queen Elizabeth I’s tax program, fell out of her favor, and encountered difficulty advancing his career. After James I acceded the throne in 1603, Bacon’s career flourished; he ultimately rose to become the Lord Chancellor, one of Britain’s highest political offices. However, his political career ended in disgrace in 1621 when the British Parliament incriminated him for accepting bribes and banished him from holding public office. King James I revoked Bacon’s sentence and allowed him to write in retirement.
Bacon’s real interests lay in science. He challenged the Aristotelian notion that scientific truth could be reached through an authoritative argument (wherein knowledgeable people discuss a subject long enough to ascertain the truth eventually.) In his early text, Cogitata et Visa (1607,) Bacon first proposed the idea of inductive reasoning. And in his best-known work, Novum Organum (1620,) Bacon not only advocated observable evidence and rational investigation but also promoted the dismissal of hypotheses founded on incomplete and insufficient proof. His philosophy, now known as the scientific method, has since been the basis of all experimental science.
Interestingly, Bacon’s scientific method ultimately took his life. When journeying in the snow-filled countryside one day, Bacon hit upon the idea of using snow to preserve meat. To test his hypothesis, Bacon purchased a fowl and stuffed it with snow. Later that day, he developed a cold that advanced into pneumonia and killed him.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Francis Bacon
Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Conversation, Speech
I cannot call riches by a better name than the “baggage” of virtue; the Roman word is better, “impediment.” For as the baggage is to an army, so are riches to virtue. It cannot be spared or left behind, and yet it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is no real use, except in the distribution; the rest is but conceit.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Vanity, Conceit, Riches
We think according to nature; we speak according to rules; but we act according to custom.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Habits
Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Humankind, Humanity
A little philosophy inclineth men’s minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further.—But when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Atheism, Philosophy, God
Bashfulness is a great hindrance to a man, both in uttering his sentiments and in understanding what is proposed to him; it is therefore good to press forward with discretion, both in discourse and company of the better sort.
—Francis Bacon
Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.
—Francis Bacon
Those friends are weak and worthless, that will not use the privilege of friendship in admonishing their friends with freedom and confidence, as well of their errors as of their danger.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Friendship
All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Greatness
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Wisdom, Questions, Questioning
There are three parts in truth: first, the inquiry, which is the wooing of it; secondly, the knowledge of it, which is the presence of it; and thirdly, the belief, which is the enjoyment of it.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Truth
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Revenge
Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.
—Francis Bacon
It would be 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
Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Riches
A man must make his opportunity as oft as find it.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Opportunity
Opportunity makes a thief.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Opportunity, Progress
Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Art, Painting, Painters
The reverence of man’s self, is, nest to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Self-respect
Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Justice, Law
The desire of power in excess caused angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity is no excess, neither can man or angels come into danger by it.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Excess, Desires, Desire
We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Philosophers, Philosophy
The place of justice is a hallowed place.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Justice
Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Knowledge
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Hope
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
—Francis Bacon
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.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Age, Wine, Time
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
Topics: Reality
Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.
—Francis Bacon
The surest way to prevent seditions is to take away the matter of them; for if there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire.
—Francis Bacon
Topics: Revolution
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