Francis Bacon Quotes

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.

When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both.

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.

Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him.

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.

It is a wise man who knows where courage ends and stupidity begins.

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

You find that all men are successes or failures. Success is the stamp of truth. I will say all men who fail to place their feet on the dome of facts do so by not sieving all truth and throwing the faulty to one side.

Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.

Don't leave hold of your common sense. Think about what you're doing and how the technology can enhance it. Don't think about technology first.

As far as I remember, even younger than eight, I have always been guided by reason. Not cold reason, but that which leads to the truth, to the real, and to sane Justice.

In the last analysis sound judgment will prevail.

It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

Kerry is an adult - he thinks things through. He learns from the present as well as the past. To George Bush, thinking things through is for sissies.

I am not 'in pursuit of truth.' It is not my 'quarry.' I am of my human nature a thinker, and conscious of need, responsibility of thinking-speaking with truth. I do not go about hunting 'truths.'