“Alcuni libri devono essere assaggiati, altri inghiottiti, e pochi masticati e digeriti.”
Of Studies; citato in Alberto Castoldi, Bibliofollia, Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2004
Sir Francis Bacon, dapprima latinizzato in Franciscus Baco e poi italianizzato in Francesco Bacone , è stato un filosofo, politico, giurista e saggista inglese vissuto alla corte inglese, sotto il regno di Elisabetta I Tudor e di Giacomo I Stuart.
Formatosi con studi in legge e giurisprudenza, divenne un sostenitore e strenuo difensore della Rivoluzione scientifica sostenendo il metodo induttivo fondato sull'esperienza. Wikipedia
“Alcuni libri devono essere assaggiati, altri inghiottiti, e pochi masticati e digeriti.”
Of Studies; citato in Alberto Castoldi, Bibliofollia, Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2004
Origine: Da Il parto maschio del tempo, in Opere filosofiche, a cura di Enrico De Mas, Laterza, Bari, 1965, vol. 1, pp. 39-40; citato in Giovanni Reale, Guida alla lettura della Metafisica di Aristotele, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1997, p. 189. ISBN 88-420-5247-7
“La verità è figlia del tempo.”
Origine: Da Pensieri e conclusioni sulla interpretazione della natura o sulla scienza operativa, in Opere.
Origine: Da Pensieri e conclusioni sulla interpretazione della natura o sulla scienza operativa (1607-1609), in Scritti filosofici, a cura di Paolo Rossi, UTET, Torino, 1975, p. 389
libro I
La dignità e il progresso del sapere divino ed umano
“Il denaro è come il letame che non serve se non è sparso.”
Of Seditions and Troubles
“La vendetta è una specie di giustizia selvaggia.”
— Francesco Bacone, libro Saggi
IV, Della vendetta
Saggi
“Non c'è nulla che faccia tanto sospettare un uomo, quanto il saper poco.”
— Francesco Bacone, libro Saggi
XXXI, Dei sospetti
Saggi
Origine: Citato in The Art of the Infinite, p. 257.
“[Bernardino Telesio] Primo fra i moderni che abbia meritato il titolo di filosofo.”
Origine: Citato in Alberto Mario, La schiavitù e il pensiero, Tipografia del Diritto, Torino, 1860, p. 38.
libro II
La dignità e il progresso del sapere divino ed umano
Origine: Citato in AA.VV., Il libro della scienza, traduzione di Martina Dominici e Olga Amagliani, Gribaudo, 2018, p. 45. ISBN 9788858015001
— Francesco Bacone, libro Saggi
VI, Della simulazione e dissimulazione
Saggi
“Se la montagna non andrà da Maometto, Maometto andrà dalla montagna.”
— Francesco Bacone, libro Saggi
XII, Dell'audacia
Saggi
— Francesco Bacone, libro Saggi
VII, Dei genitori e dei figli
Saggi
“Nothing is terrible except fear itself.”
Nil terribile nisi ipse timor.
De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, Fortitudo (1623)
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 3
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
“A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.”
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Ceremonies and Respect
Essays (1625)
Variante: Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Origine: The Essays
— Francis Bacon, libro The Advancement of Learning
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Contesto: The use of this feigned history hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the world being in proportion inferior to the soul; by reason whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can be found in the nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical: because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence: because true history representeth actions and events more ordinary, and less interchanged, therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness, and more unexpected and alternative variations: so as it appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things.
Book II, iv, 2
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Anger
Essays (1625)
Contesto: To seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: Be angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Anger must be limited and confined, both in race and in time.
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Atheism; in the original archaic English this read: I HAD rather beleeve all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, then that this universall Frame, is without a Minde. And therefore, God never wrought Miracle, to convince Atheisme, because his Ordinary Works convince it. It is true, that a little Philosophy inclineth Mans Minde to Atheisme; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Mens Mindes about to Religion.
Essays (1625)
Contesto: I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. And therefore, God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
Sylva Sylvarum Century X (1627)
Origine: The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
Contesto: It is true that may hold in these things, which is the general root of superstition; namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Youth and Age
Essays (1625)
“Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands.”
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Fortune
Essays (1625)
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Studies
Essays (1625)
“It is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, Tell a lie and find a truth.”
The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Simulation And Dissimulation
Origine: See Silent Truth https://books.google.com.br/books?id=-bIAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT190 by Mark Edwards
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Essays (1625)
Contesto: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Of Studies
— Francis Bacon, libro The Advancement of Learning
Book I, v, 8
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Origine: The Advancement Of Learning
Contesto: The two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients: the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation: If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
No. 36
Apophthegms (1624)
Variante: Money is a great servant but a bad master.
“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”
— Francis Bacon, libro Saggi
Of Beauty
Essays (1625)
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: It cannot be that axioms established by argumentation should avail for the discovery of new works, since the subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily discover the way to new particulars, and thus render sciences active.
Aphorism 24
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 124
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 129
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 95
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory whole, as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested. Therefore from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as has never yet been made), much may be hoped.
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 93
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on “before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: —“Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;” clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Novum Organum (1620)
Contesto: Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far....
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.
“There is a great difference between the Idols of the human mind and the Ideas of the divine.”
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 23
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: There is a great difference between the Idols of the human mind and the Ideas of the divine. That is to say, between certain empty dogmas, and the true signatures and marks set upon the works of creation as they are found in nature.
— Francis Bacon, libro Novum Organum
Aphorism 97
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Contesto: No 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.