A Finding List: Part I.
Bacon’s Words and Phrases of the English then of the Latin
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z
O (English)
Oaths Men are deceived with oaths, as boys with dice. (Bacon, Promus 528 of the Latin taken from Erasmus’s Adagia 699).
Children are deceived with comfits, men with oaths. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VIII).
Obedience Merit is worthier than fame; and looking back hither, would remember this text, that obedience is better than sacrifice. (Bacon, Advice to Essex).
The end of morality is to procure the affections to obey Reason. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Obnoxious When one man stands in such a relation to another that he is not free to act as he otherwise would. (Bacon, History of King Henry VII.).
Observation Wise men use studies, for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without [external to] them, and above them, won by observation. (Bacon, Essay: Of Studies).
For knowledge (of men’s dispositions) both history, poesy, and daily experience are as goodly fields where these observations grow. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Obsolete laws In the De Augmentis, Bacon devotes several aphorisms to the consideration of obsolete laws. He regards such laws as a source of danger in the influence which they naturally exert on the public mind regarding all law. To repeal them from time to time was the one great practical reform which he constantly urged upon the government, and it is the identical reform which the author of Measure for Measure sought to illustrate and enforce in that play. Bacon advised the frequent appointment of commissions to do this work; the Duke in the play actually appoints one. Judge Holmes calls attention to the fact that both authors make the possession of “power and place” a necessary condition to the accomplishment of this end. “Good thoughts are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place,” says Bacon.
Occasion Turneth a bald noddle, after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken. (Bacon, Essay: Of Delays; Letter to Essex, March 1599).
Opportunity offers the handle of the bottle first, and afterwards the belly. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI. Antitheta 41).
Old We see that Plautus makes it a wonder to see an old man beneficent: “His beneficence is that of a young man.” (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VII).
I am now somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. (Bacon, Letter to Lord Burghley, 1592).
Her Majesty being begun in my first years, I would be sorry she should estrange in my last years, for so I account them, reckoning by health, not by age. (Bacon, Letter to Robert Cecil, 1599).
A young author’s first work almost always bespeaks his recent pursuits. (Coleridge).
One’s own Is beautiful. (Bacon, Promus 981 taken from Erasmus’s Adagia).
If everyone has a right to his own, surely humanity has a right to pardon. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI.; Promus 71).
Opiates Simple opiates are (1) the plant and seed of the poppy, (2) henbane, (3) mandragora. (Bacon, Natural History, 1622–25).
Opinion When men enter first into search and inquiry, they light upon different conceits, and so all opinions and doubts are beaten over, and then men reject the worst and hold themselves to the best (some being carried on), the rest extinct. But truth is contrary. Time is like a river that carrieth down things that are light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which is sad and weighty. (Bacon, Interpretation of Nature).
To those that seek truth and not magistrality, it cannot but seem a matter of great profit to see before them the several opinions touching the foundations of nature, &c. It is good to see the several glosses and opinions whereof it may be everyone in some one point hath seen clearer than his fellows. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
This progress of science is apt to be overwhelmed by the gales of popular opinion. (Bacon, Nov. Org., Bk. I).
Opportunity Makes a thief. (Bacon, Advice to Essex).
It is a loss to business to be too fall of respects, or to be curious in observing times and opportunities. A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. (Bacon, Essay: Of Ceremonies).
Orange-tawny A dull orange colour. This colour seems to have been appropriated by custom to the dress of some inferior persons; as clerks. Sometimes simply called tawny. It is attributed also to Jews: They say that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do judaïze. (Bacon, Essay: 41).
Orations, Letters, and ApophthegmsCertainly the Speeches of wise men on business and matters of grave and deep importance conduce greatly as well to the knowledge of the things themselves as to eloquence. But for instruction in civil prudence, still greater help is derived from Letterswritten by great men on weighty subjects. For of all the words of man nothing is more solid and excellent than letters of this kind; for they are more natural than orations, and more advised than conferences on the sudden. And when there is a continued series of them in order of time (as we find in the letters of Ambassadors, Governors of provinces, and other Ministers of State, to Kings, Senates, and other superior officers; or, again, in the letters of rulers to their agents), they are of all others the most valuable materials for history. Neither are Apophthegmsthemselves only for pleasure and ornament, but also for use and action. For they are (as was said) “words which are as goads,” words with an edge or point that cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs. Now occasions are continually returning, and what served once will serve again; whether produced as man’s own or cited as an old saying. Nor can there be any question of the utility in civil matters of that which Cæsar himself thought worthy of his labour; whose book of Apophthegms I wish were extant; for all the collections which we have of this kind appear to me to have been compiled without much judgment. And so much concerning history; which is that part of learning which answers to one of the cells, domiciles, or offices of the mind of man, which is that of the memory. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Orb of virtue Gilbert was of opinion that the earth is a great magnet, which attracts all bodies near its surface, although phenomena of polarity are only developed in a few cases. To every magnet he ascribed an orb of virtue beyond which it exerts no influence whatever, and also a smaller orb of coition such that the magnet cannot produce motion in any portion of matter which lies beyond it. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. II).
Origin of language Bacon was probably the first to propose a question to the origin of language. (Bacon, De Aug., Bk. VI).
During the Middle Ages and until comparatively recent times, Latin was the language most widely used in the West for scholarly and literary purposes. Until the latter part of the twentieth century its use was required in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. [Also see Latin.] The varying sounds of the kettle suggested a curious fancy to the Finns. According to them the confusion of tongues was caused by a kettle, which came down from heaven, and from the varying noises of which each family learnt a different language. (Grimm, Origin of Language).
Orpheus All beasts and birds assembled, and forgetting their several appetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood all sociably together, listening unto the airs and accords of [Orpheus’] harp. (Bacon, Adv., 1603–05).
So great was the power of his music that it moved the woods and the very stones to shift themselves and take their stations about him. (Bacon, Wisdom of the Ancients, 1609).
At last, certain Thracian women, under the stimulation of Bacchus, came where he was, while Orpheus himself was torn to pieces by them in their fury. (Ibid).
Orpin Great houseleek or tree houseleek. (Bacon, Syl. Sylv).
Our steps must Be guided by a clue, and the whole way from the very first perception of the senses must be laid out upon a sure plan. (Bacon, In. Mag).
Outward He that is only real, had need have exceeding great parts of virtue; as the stone had need to be rich that is set without foil. It doth add much to a man’s reputation to have good forms. (Bacon, Essay: Of Ceremonies and Respects).
Overlive To outlive. (Bacon, Essay: XXVII).
O (Latin)
O urbem venalem, et cito perituram, si emptorem invenerit A city in which all things are for sale and which will fall to the first purchaser. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Occidat matrem, modo imperet Let him kill his mother so he be emperor. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).
Oculus aquilae non penetrarit Not to be penetrated even by the eye of an eagle. (Essex, Letter to Anthony Bacon).
Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes All dwellers in the heaven and upper sky. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Omnia mutantur, nil interit All things change, but nothing is lost. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Omnia per omnia all by all; all same; of conveying any words you please under cover of any other words you please, provided only that they contain not less than five times as many letters. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
The all in all cipher. (Gallup).
Omnigenumque deum monstra, et latrator Anubis contra Neptunum et Venerem, contraque Minervam: All kinds and shapes of gods, a monstrous host, the dog Anubis foremost, stood arrayed against Neptune, Venus, Pallas. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Opera basilica Works for a King. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Opera eorum sequuntur eos Their works follow them. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Oportet discentem credere A man who is learning must be content to believe what he is told. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).
Oportet edoctum judicare When he has learned it he must exercise his judgment and see whether it be worthy of belief. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. I).
Optimum elige, suave et facile illud faciet consuetudo Choose the best; custom will make it pleasant and easy. (Bacon, Essays: VII).
Optimus Maximus Best and Greatest. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Opus quod operatur Deus ab initio usque ad finem The work which God worketh from the beginning to the end. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II.; De Aug., Bk. I.; Proverbs, XX. 27).
Origanum majorana This species was introduced to England from Portugal in 1573, and is biennial; the common sweet basil, which was almost the only kind of ocymum known in England in Bacon’s time, is an annual. (Bacon, Vitæ et Mortis).
Orpheus in sylvis, inter delphinas Arion To be in the woods an Orpheus, among the dolphins an Arion. (Bacon, Adv., Bk. II).
Otia colligunt mentem Leisure restores the mind. (Bacon).