Axioms / from the Essays

Sir Francis Bacon

- An axiom is a rule or principle that is generally considered to be true.
- Bacon's axioms reveal his understanding of human nature.
- The overall message of Bacon's axioms that people should strive for a rational, balanced
approach of life.

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.
                                                        —“Of Death”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s

nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
                                                        —“Of Revenge”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of
adversity is fortitude.
                                                        —“Of Adversity”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to

fortune.
                                            —“Of Marriage and Single Life”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
There was never proud man thought so absurdly well of
himself as the lover doth of the person loved: And
therefore it was well said, That it is impossible to love
and to be wise.
                                                        —“Of Love”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility, for
certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body, and if
he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and
ignoble creature.
                                                        —“Of Atheism”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge

of the fullness and swellings of the heart.
                                                        —“Of Friendship”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

As the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue.

                                                 —“Of Riches”
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
No man prospers so suddenly as by others’ errors.
                                                        —“Of Fortune”

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
                                           —“Of Beauty”

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________