We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
Use itGS4: contrast realpolitik (what is) with normative ethics (what ought to be).
Quotes / Thinkers / Francis Bacon
Thinker · 16 quotes
Francis Bacon quotes for UPSC
16 sourced quotes by Francis Bacon on science, technology & innovation, education & knowledge, ethics & morality, character & virtue, compassion & empathy, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.
Use itGS4/Life: prioritise inner virtues over material goals; the rest follows or matters less.
He that defers his charity 'till he is dead, is (if a man weighs it rightly) rather liberal of another man's, than of his own.
— Francis BaconOrnamenta Rationalia, http://books.google.com/books?id=VHNUAAAAYAAJ&q="He+that+defers+his+charity+'till+he+is+dead+is+if+a+man+weighs+i
Use itGS4 on philanthropy: generosity postponed till death costs the giver nothing.
For knowledge itself is power.
Use itEssay intro on knowledge economy; education as empowerment of individuals and nations.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
— Francis BaconOf Studies
Use itInterview on reading habits; essay on how reading, discussion and writing build a complete mind.
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 BaconOf Studies
Use itEssay on critical thinking; read to weigh and consider, not to accept or refute blindly.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
Use itEssay on exploration and innovation; Life: don't conclude failure just because results aren't visible yet.
It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.
— Francis BaconAphorism 6
Use itGS3/Essay on innovation: new results need untried methods; support experimentation in governance.
But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this — that men despair and think things impossible.
— Francis BaconAphorism 92
Use itEssay: pessimism and despair, not difficulty, are the biggest barriers to progress.
It is true that may hold in these things, which is the general root of superstition; namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.
— Francis BaconSylva Sylvarum Century X (1627)
Use itEssay on scientific temper (Art 51A): superstition thrives on remembering hits and forgetting misses.
Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
— Francis BaconDe Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, "Antitheta" (1623)
Use itGS4: wealth as servant, not master; essay on materialism and ethical use of money.
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.
— Francis BaconAphorism 3
Use itEssay on sustainable development: to harness nature we must respect and follow its laws.
Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.
— Francis BaconAphorism 20
Use itEssay: clear hypotheses, even wrong ones, beat muddled thinking; value of trial and error.
Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.
Use itGS4: those with little to lose speak truth; why leaders must listen to grassroots voices.
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
— Francis BaconEssex's Device (1595)
Use itEssay: ideas and literature outlast empires; culture endures beyond political power.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Use itLife: hope must start the effort but cannot substitute for results at the end.