Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
— The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
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.
Where this quote comes from
Bacon wrote this in The Advancement of Learning (1605), comparing two ways of thinking to two roads the ancients described: one smooth at first and impassable at the end, the other rough at the start and easy later. Starting with doubts is the rough road, and Bacon argues it is the one that leads to certainty.
Source: The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book I
Also quoted as
- “If a man will begin with certainties he shall end in doubts but if he will content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.”
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More from Francis Bacon
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
— The Essays
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
— The Essays
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.
— The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
— The Essays
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
— The Advancement Of Learning