Question 1

What is the best book to start with?

Accepted Answer

Of Studies, then Novum Organum, book 1, aphorisms 38 to 44 The essay is his English at its surest. The aphorisms show what the power of knowledge was supposed to be disciplined by.

Question 2

What is the most famous quote?

Accepted Answer

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Francis Bacon that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Knowledge itself is power.” (Meditationes Sacrae (1597), 'Of Heresies': ipsa scientia potestas est, Paraphrase or translation).

Question 3

What is the most misquoted line?

Accepted Answer

None of the lines this library files for Francis Bacon is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

Question 4

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Accepted Answer

Idols: Four classes of idol, tribe, cave, marketplace, and theatre, beset the mind before investigation begins.