Learning Quotes by Francis Bacon

“Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books." [ Proposition touching Amendment of Laws ]”

— Francis Bacon

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

— Francis Bacon

The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.

— Francis Bacon

Learning teaches how to carry things in suspense, without prejudice, till you resolve it.

— Francis Bacon

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

— Francis Bacon

Friendship maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts.

— Francis Bacon

“The eye of the human understanding is not a naked organ of perception (lumen siccum), but an eye imbued with moisture by…

— Francis Bacon

The genius of any single man can no more equal learning, than a private purse hold way with the exchequer.

— Francis Bacon

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds.

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding of its own nature is prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than…

— Francis Bacon

“The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself)…

— Francis Bacon

“It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives.”

— Francis Bacon

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

— Francis Bacon

Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then…

— Francis Bacon

Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work…

— Francis Bacon

The eye of understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as you may see great objects through small crannies or…

— Francis Bacon

We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the…

— Francis Bacon

There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time,…

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding is moved by those things most which strike and enter the mind simultaneously and suddenly, and so fill the…

— Francis Bacon

“We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the…

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding is of its own nature prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than…

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain. Therefore it is that we…

— Francis Bacon

For there is a great difference in delivery of the mathematics , which are the most abstracted of knowledges, and policy ,…

— Francis Bacon

No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories…

— Francis Bacon

“Nay, the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of…

— Francis Bacon

But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for…

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although…

— Francis Bacon

It is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill…

— Francis Bacon

“The understanding must not therefore be supplied with wings, but rather hung with weights, to keep it from leaping and flying.”

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections... What a man had rather were…

— Francis Bacon

Disciples do owe their masters only a temporary belief, and a suspension of their own judgment till they be fully instructed.

— Francis Bacon

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature;…

— Francis Bacon

The universe must not be narrowed down to the limit of our understanding, but our understanding must be stretched and enlarged to…

— Francis Bacon

“For friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections, from storm and tempests; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out…

— Francis Bacon

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its…

— Francis Bacon

But by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses;…

— Francis Bacon

But the idols of the Market Place are the most troublesome of all: idols which have crept into the understanding through their…

— Francis Bacon

Another diversity of Methods is according to the subject or matter which is handled; for there is a great difference in delivery…

— Francis Bacon

Since my logic aims to teach and instruct the understanding, not that it may with the slender tendrils of the mind snatch…

— Francis Bacon