Quote of the Day (Sir Francis Bacon, on How to Bring About the Future)

“It would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose that things which have never yet been performed, can be performed without employing some hitherto untried means.”—English philosopher, statesman, and essayist Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Novum Organum (1620)

Quote of the Day (Francis Bacon, on Reading, Meeting and Writing)

“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”—English essayist, courtier, and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), “Of Studies” (1601)

Quote of the Day (Francis Bacon, on Prosperity and Adversity)

“Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.”—Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), “On Adversity,” in Essays (1597)

An excellent thought to recall as a new year begins... 

(The image accompanying this post is John Vanderbank’s portrait of Francis Bacon painted around 1731, after a portrait from a century before by an unknown artist. The Vanderbank painting now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, in London.)

Quote of the Day (Elizabeth I, on Anger)

“Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.”—Queen Elizabeth I quoted in Sir Francis Bacon, Essays and Apothegms of Francis Lord Bacon, edited by John Buchan (1894)

(The image accompanying this post is the Pelican Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by Nicolas Hilliard, ca. 1575)