It would be 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 BaconThey who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.
Francis BaconRevenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Francis BaconIn all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
Francis BaconNo one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed.
Francis Bacon