Francis Bacon was a famous English writer and philosopher born in the town of Strand, in London, around the year 1561.
This writer was undoubtedly one of the most influential philosophers of his time and that is why some of his most interesting reflections are still well remembered today.
If you are interested in the personal philosophy of this famous writer and would like to know some of his most notable reflections, you should know that you are in the right place.
Below we are going to show you a short list with the 60 best phrases of Francis Bacon along with a small note about each of them in which we reveal our particular point of view on each quote in question.
1. Nature cannot be ordered unless it is obeyed.
As human beings we are always at the mercy of nature and it is thanks to it that most people can live very comfortably on this planet.
2. He who gives good advice builds with one hand; He who gives good advice and examples, he builds with both; But he who gives good warning and bad example, he builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
It is an irrefutable fact that we must always lead by our own example if we want third parties to take us seriously.
3. Money is like manure, it’s only good if you spread it around.
Thanks to money we can improve both our lives and the lives of all those around us, a fact with which we will also indirectly be able to effectively improve our own existence.
4. The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
Only with patience and perseverance will we be able to achieve all our personal goals. As people we should never despair because perhaps success is closer than we imagine.
5. Some books are to be tasted, some are to be swallowed, and some are to be chewed and digested.
Some books can be very complicated to digest in one sitting, which is why we should not hesitate to reread a book if we think that something about it is not completely clear to us.
6. A man must take advantage of his opportunity, as often as he finds it.
Some opportunities for success may only come once in a lifetime, we must make sure we take advantage of all our opportunities if we want to be able to reach our full potential as individuals.
7. Because a crowd is not company; and faces are nothing more than a gallery of images; and speaks, but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
We can feel alone even if we are totally surrounded by people, because it is love and not company that we as human beings usually look for in others.
8. Choose the life that is most useful, and the habit will make it more pleasant.
Being useful to society is something very comforting for anyone, which is why so many men and women decide to dedicate their lives to the service of people.
9. Death is a friend of ours; and he who is not ready to entertain him is not at home.
When the time comes, we will all die and, as human beings, we must learn to live with this reality if we want to be fully happy individuals.
10. Knowledge is power.
Knowledge is true power, since it is undoubtedly thanks to it that modern society can fly, travel to the moon or even send robots to Mars.
11. If a man is kind and courteous to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world.
We must always be kind to everyone we meet, because in reality we have no idea of ​​the existential battles that these people may be going through.
12. Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Sooner or later the truth always comes to light, no matter how much the powerful sometimes try to hide it.
13. Natural abilities are like natural plants; They need pruning for study.
As much as we may have a great innate ability, we must always hone it through practice if we want to be able to exploit it to its full potential.
14. There is a limit to suffering; to fear, none.
Although the powerful may threaten to make us feel a great deal of suffering, we must remain steadfast if we wish to be able to achieve our goals.
15. Traveling, in the younger gender, is part of education; in the elderly, a part of the experience. He who travels to a country before entering the language goes to school.
Traveling is certainly a very beneficial experience for any type of person, because through this activity we will discover how in the world today there are many different ways of understanding life.
16. Monuments of ingenuity survive monuments of power.
Inventions tend to be much more resistant to the passage of time than monuments, since the former have something really very important: usefulness.
17. Start doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We only have this moment, shining like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.
Our passage through the world will not last forever and that is why we should hurry up to carry out all those actions that we want to live in our lives.
18. The truth is very difficult to tell, sometimes it needs fiction to make it plausible.
Sometimes the truth can be too painful to be taken directly in this situation, a little fiction, as Bacon tells us, can be the seasoning we need to sweeten it.
19. A little philosophy inclined the mind of man towards atheism, but depth in philosophy leads the mind of men to religion.
Philosophy and religion are much closer than we imagine, sometimes even some people can confuse one with the other.
20. The worst loner is to be destitute of true friendship.
Some people are simply incapable of living alone, a way of being that usually leads them to try to find friends even in the most unexpected places.
21. Philosophy, when studied superficially, raises doubts; when explored thoroughly, it dissipates them.
Philosophy is undoubtedly a very enlightening science, a current of thought that in the past gave us as a whole society some of the most interesting answers of all time.
22. Great daring is rarely absurd.
Those people who are capable of performing great feats are usually very aware of their own limitations, although from our point of view we are not able to see it.
23. The best part of beauty is what no image can express.
As people, our most beautiful attribute will always be what we have on the inside, because as is known, the external beauty of people has always had an ephemeral nature.
24. Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad dinner.
Although, as they say, hope is the last thing to be lost, we must keep in mind that sooner or later it will also abandon us.
25. God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, that is, the Scriptures. But he wrote a second book called creation.
In this quote we can see how Francis Bacon, apart from being an extremely pragmatic writer, was also a devout Christian, something that at that time was the most common thing in society.
26. Nature is often hidden, sometimes surpassed, rarely extinguished.
Nature is tremendously powerful and it is very likely that it will still be here even when human beings have already disappeared as a species.
27. Books speak clearly when counselors soften.
There are many questions to which we can find solutions in a good book, and on many occasions books can even become our most faithful and honest advisors.
28. A prudent question is half of wisdom.
Curiosity is what has allowed us as humans to become a tremendously advanced society, which is why we must never stop asking ourselves questions if we want to be able to evolve over time.
29. There is no comparison between what you lose by not succeeding and what you lose by not trying.
If we don’t try, failure is guaranteed so, seen another way, the mere fact of trying is in itself a first step towards success.
30. He who is enchanted in solitude is a wild beast or a god.
Loneliness is a complicated situation to cope with, but if we learn to live with it, we become much more complete and independent people.
31. If we want to achieve things never before achieved, we must employ methods that have never been tried before.
Big problems always tend to demand big solutions, although sometimes these solutions may not initially seem to be within our reach.
32. Silence is the virtue of fools.
As they say, it is much better to remain silent and appear foolish than to open your mouth and confirm suspicions.
33. Champagne for my true friends, true pain for my fake friends.
A phrase that perhaps many of us agree with because as human beings, the vast majority of us always tend to wish the best for all our loved ones.
34. The remedy is worse than the disease.
A quote that many of us have probably heard from this famous writer. Some solutions sometimes end up being more painful than the problem itself.
35. The less people talk about its greatness, the more we think about it.
As readers we must never forget the great authors, no matter how much society seems to have decided to forget some of them.
36. For friends… look at good books: they are true friends, who will neither flatter nor dissemble.
A good book can undoubtedly be great company and even in many cases, this may be the best company that some of us have.
37. There are two ways to spread light… be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
It is our altruistic acts and the good actions of those around us, which in practice will allow us to create a better society in the future.
38. It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to all others, and yet unknown to himself.
There are many people who throughout their lives do not allocate enough time to introspection to be able to know themselves, a situation that, as we see in this quote, was seen as very sad by this writer.
39. Read not to contradict and refute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to think and consider.
Reading is an activity that can undoubtedly open our minds to a great extent, although we must keep in mind that we do not always have to take for granted everything we read in a book.
40. By far the best test is experience.
Some activities can only be carried out by very experienced people, since we must be very clear that experience has always been and always will be the best teacher.
41. It is impossible to love and be wise.
Decisions made out of love are usually totally antagonistic to those made with wisdom, it is up to us to weigh whether it is reason or love that directs our lives.
42. There are only two tragedies in life: one is one’s inability to achieve a heart’s desire: the other is having it!
Love is a very complicated emotion to cope with and even more so when we discover that it is not reciprocated.
43. For light to shine so brightly, darkness must be present.
In the universe, ambiguity is something that is always present, since absolutely everything that surrounds us always has both positive and negative aspects.
44. Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; and sense of humor to comfort him for who he is.
Thanks to imagination and a sense of humor, human beings are capable of leading very happy lives while actually possessing very little, a capacity that some people seem to be losing today.
45. Older people object too much, consult too long, venture too little, repent too soon, and rarely direct the business to its end, but are content with a mediocrity of success.
As time goes by, our perspective on life will inevitably change, and our way of making decisions will obviously also be something that changes with us.
46. ​​Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.
Certainly this is a tendency that usually occurs in a large number of people, it is always much easier to believe in something positive than in something negative.
47. He who has a wife and children has given hostages to fortune; because they are impediments to great enterprises, whether by virtue or malice.
Having a family is something that consumes a lot of anyone’s time, which is why in this quote this famous writer explains to us that if we want to be successful we must have our priorities very clear.
48. The general root of superstition: namely, that men observe when things strike, and not when they fail; Commit to remembering the one, and forget and ignore the other.
Superstition and human beings have always gone hand in hand, although luckily, in Francis Bacon’s time this was something that was beginning to be part of the past.
49. A false friend is more dangerous than an open enemy.
It is known that the declared enemy can be seen coming with tremendous ease, but on the other hand, against the false friend it is very likely that we have not raised the necessary defensive measures at the right time.
50. He who does not apply new remedies must expect new evils; because time is the greatest innovator.
As the years go by, we will always encounter new problems in the course of our lives, difficulties to which we will have to find a solution if we want to achieve success.
51. Seek first the good things of the mind, and the rest will be provided or its loss will not be felt.
The most powerful tool that all human beings have will always be our mind, which is why as individuals we should all learn to use it in the most efficient way possible.
52. If a man begins with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he is content to begin with doubts, he will end with certainties.
Life will always bring us a large number of unknowns, we must learn to look for solutions if we want to be more successful people in the future.
53. Age is better at four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Although age usually tends to deteriorate all things, as Francis Bacon well knew, on some occasions it can even be beneficial.
54. Saying that a man lies is the same as saying that he is brave with God and cowardly with men.
Lying is something that is unfortunately very present in our society, and it is something that we should undoubtedly learn to get rid of.
55. Vengeance is a king of savage justice.
Certainly revenge is a tremendously savage form of justice and, on some occasions, it is even worse than the initial act that produced it.
56. Human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (whether as the received opinion or because it is agreeable) attracts all other things to support it and agree with it.
When we create an opinion, many of us tend to look for arguments that support it, an act that sometimes many of us even tend to do completely unconsciously.
57. The artist’s job is always to delve into the mystery.
The only way to create a great artistic work is to do something that has never been done before, a task that in practice can be really complicated to carry out.
58. Because no one can prohibit the spark or say where it can come from.
You never know what life has in store for you because it is simply impossible for anyone to predict with certainty what will happen tomorrow.
59. Money is a great servant, but a bad teacher.
Possessing great economic wealth is undoubtedly a characteristic that can greatly cloud our understanding.
60. A wise man will have more opportunities than he finds.
Only by being wise and complete people will we be able to glimpse all those opportunities that life really offers us over time.
