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Quotes of the Day for 22 January 2005 - Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was born at London on this day in 1561. His father's death in 1579 left him penniless, but he took to the law well enough to hold a seat in Parliament by age 23 and eventually held the titles Baron Verulam and Viscount Saint Albans. His public career was limited under Queen Elizabeth, flourished under James, but ended when he took a bribe. His literary output was great (claims that he was the actual author of Shakespeare's plays recur from time to time), and his scientific inquiries varied and continued until he died of bronchitis following experiments at storing meat at low temperatures - the experimenter was too often at the same temperature as the experiment.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties.

It is a secret both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one.

Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other.
     - All from Francis Bacon, 1561 - 1626

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