# Quote — Francis Bacon, The Essays

> It is a miserable state of mind, to have few things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings; who, being at the highest, want matter of desire, which makes their minds more languishing; and have many representations of perils and shadows, which makes their minds the less clear.

- Author: [Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md)
- Book: [The Essays](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Essays_(Francis_Bacon)#Of_Empire) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/it-is-a-miserable

## More from this book

> She gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds; that in the daytime she sitteth in a watch tower, and flieth most by night; that she mingleth things done, with things not done; and that she is a terror to great cities.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/she-gathereth-strength.md)

> Let not judges also be ignorant of their own right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use and application of laws.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/let-not-judges.md)

> In fame of learning, the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation. Qui de contemnenda gloria libros scribunt, nomen, suum inscribunt. Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation. Certainly vain-glory helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory; and virtue was never so beholding to human nature, as it received his due at the second hand.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/in-fame-of-learning.md)