The essays; or, Counsels moral, economical, and political, by sir F. Bacon |
From inside the book
Page 18
... degrees of this hiding and veil- ing of man's self . The first - closeness , reservation , and secresy ; when a man leaveth himself without observation , or without hold to be taken what he is . The second , Dissimulation in the ...
... degrees of this hiding and veil- ing of man's self . The first - closeness , reservation , and secresy ; when a man leaveth himself without observation , or without hold to be taken what he is . The second , Dissimulation in the ...
Page 20
... degree , which is Simulation , and false profession : that I hold more culpable , and less politic , except it be in great and rare matters . And therefore a general custom of Simulation ( which is this last degree ) is a vice , rising ...
... degree , which is Simulation , and false profession : that I hold more culpable , and less politic , except it be in great and rare matters . And therefore a general custom of Simulation ( which is this last degree ) is a vice , rising ...
Page 30
... degrees , are less envied than those that are advanced suddenly , and per saltum , " at a jump . " Those that have joined with their honour great travels , cares , or perils , are less subject to Envy : for men think that they earn ...
... degrees , are less envied than those that are advanced suddenly , and per saltum , " at a jump . " Those that have joined with their honour great travels , cares , or perils , are less subject to Envy : for men think that they earn ...
Page 34
... degree of Love : which shows , that great spirits , and great business , do keep out this weak passion . You must except , nevertheless , Marcus Antonius , the half partner of the Empire of Rome ; and Appius Claudius the Decemvir , the ...
... degree of Love : which shows , that great spirits , and great business , do keep out this weak passion . You must except , nevertheless , Marcus Antonius , the half partner of the Empire of Rome ; and Appius Claudius the Decemvir , the ...
Page 55
... degrees of quality , in an over proportion to the common people , doth speedily bring a State to necessity : and so doth likewise an overgrown Clergy , for they bring nothing to the stock : and in like manner , when more are bred ...
... degrees of quality , in an over proportion to the common people , doth speedily bring a State to necessity : and so doth likewise an overgrown Clergy , for they bring nothing to the stock : and in like manner , when more are bred ...
Common terms and phrases
actions Æsop affections amongst ancient arms arts Atheism Augustus Cæsar better beware body Boldness Cæsar cause Certainly Cicero cometh command commonly corrupt coun counsel Counsellors cunning custom danger Death Discontentments discourse Dispatch doth Envy Epicurus Epimetheus Evil fame favour fear fore fortune fruit of Friendship Galba Garden give giveth goeth greater greatest hand hath heart Henry VII honour hurt Judge judgment Julius Cæsar keep keeper of promise kind king lastly less likewise Love maketh man's matter means men's mind motion nature never nizaries Nobility noble opinion persons Plutarch Pompey princes religion remedy rest Riches Romans saith secret Seditions seemeth Septimius Severus servants side soldiers sometimes sort speak speech Superstition sure Tacitus teth things thou thought Tiberius tion true unto Usury Vespasian virtue whereas whereby wherein whereof wise
Popular passages
Page 3 - It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below : but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below:" so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride.
Page 191 - STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is in discourse ; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one ; but the general counsels, and the plots, and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned.
Page 1 - WHAT is Truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness', and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting.
Page 64 - IT were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose:
Page 4 - MEN fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark ; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and religious ; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in some of the friars...
Page 174 - GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden. And, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures ; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks.
Page 163 - Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
Page 5 - It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates ' and masters the fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death ; Love slights it; Honour aspireth to it; Grief flieth to it; Fear pre-occupateth it...
Page 38 - But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring. For good thoughts (though God accept them) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground.
Page 93 - It is good also not to try experiments in States, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation...