“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

— Francis Bacon, Essays, "Of Studies" (1625)

About Francis Bacon

1561 – 1626

English philosopher and statesman, author of the "Essays" and "Novum Organum".

“Nothing is terrible except fear itself.”

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”