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Home  »  Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men  »  Sir Nicholas Bacon

S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.

Sir Nicholas Bacon

  • [Father of Lord Bacon; born 1510; appointed lord keeper of the great seal by Queen Elizabeth, which he held twenty years; died 1579.]
  • Your highness has made me too great for my house.

  • To Queen Elizabeth, who remarked during her visit to him in 1572, that his house was too small, but (referring to his corpulence) that his soul lodged well.
  • When asked by the queen his opinion of the monopoly license, he replied by quoting, “Licentiâ omnes deteriores sumus” (We are all the worse for licenses).—TERENCE: Heaut., i. 3.
  • A convicted criminal, named Hog, implored mercy on the ground of kindred. “But you and I,” said the lord keeper, “cannot be kindred except you be hanged, for Hog is not Bacon until it be well hanged.”
  • The Earl of Leicester asked his opinion of two persons the queen thought well of. “By my troth, my lord,” was his reply, “the one is a grave counsellor; the other is a proper young man, and he will be as long as he lives.”