The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise.
‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Vicissitude of Things’
Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.
‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self’.
It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set a house on fire, and it were but to roast
their eggs.
‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self’
It is the wisdom of the crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour.
‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self’
Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for
new projects than for settled business.
‘Essays’ (1625) ‘Of Youth and Age’
For they thought generally that he was a Prince as ordained, and sent down from heaven to
unite and put to an end the long dissensions of the two houses; which although they had had, in
the times of Henry the Fourth, Henry the Fifth, and a part of Henry the Sixth on the one side, and
the times of Edward the Fourth on the other, lucid intervals and happy pauses; yet they did ever
hang over the kingdom, ready to break forth into new perturbations and calamities.
‘History of King Henry VII’ (1622) para. 3 in J. Spedding (ed.) ‘The Works of Francis Bacon’ vol. 6 (1858)
p. 32
I have rather studied books than men.
‘A Letter of Advice...to the Duke of Buckingham, When he became Favourite to King James’ (1661)
I have taken all knowledge to be my province.
‘To My Lord Treasurer Burghley’ (1592) in J. Spedding (ed.) ‘The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon’ vol. 1
(1861) p. 109
Opportunity makes a thief.
‘A Letter of Advice to the Earl of Essex...’ (1598) in J. Spedding (ed.) ‘The Letters and Life of Francis
Bacon’ vol. 2 (1862) p. 99
Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.
‘Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature’ ch. 26 in ‘Letters and Remains of the Lord Chancellor
Bacon’ (collected by Robert Stephens, 1734) p. 450
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
Knowledge itself is power.
‘Meditationes Sacrae’ (1597) ‘Of Heresies’
I would live to study, and not study to live.
‘Memorial of Access’
God’s first Creature, which was Light.
‘New Atlantis’ (1627)
The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the
enlarging of the bounds of human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
‘New Atlantis’ (1627)