Bacon’s Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

Bacon’s celebrated essays offer crisp, worldly-wise reflections on the great subjects of life—truth, death, ambition, friendship, love, studies, fortune, and the conduct of affairs—in prose of remarkable density and polish. Each essay packs shrewd observation and memorable aphorism into a few pages, distilling the practical wisdom of a brilliant statesman and philosopher. Paired here with his Wisdom of the Ancients, they reveal a mind as sharp about human nature as it was about the new science he championed. Endlessly quotable and richly rewarding, Bacon’s Essays are a cornerstone of English prose and a treasury of hard-earned insight into how to think, act, and live well.