Francis Bacon - Quodid

About

Picture of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of natural philosophy, guided by the scientific method, and his works remained influential throughout the Scientific Revolution.

Francis Bacon is sometimes cited as:

Sir Francis Bacon

Quotes from Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

—Francis Bacon

wisdom opportunities

There it is. I don't believe in anything, but I'm always glad to wake up in the morning. It doesn't depress me. I'm never depressed. My basic nervous system is filled with this optimism. It's mad, I know, because it's optimism about nothing. I think of life as meaningless and yet it excites me. I always think something marvelous is about to happen.

—Francis Bacon

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

—Francis Bacon

beauty strangeness

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts lead us back to God.

—Francis Bacon

God philosophy atheism

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

—Francis Bacon

nature acquiescence

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

—Francis Bacon

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

—Francis Bacon

People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.

—Francis Bacon

In charity there is no excess.

—Francis Bacon

By far the best proof is experience.

—Francis Bacon

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

—Francis Bacon

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

—Francis Bacon

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

Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.

—Francis Bacon

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

—Francis Bacon

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