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All Superstition Is Much The Same Whether It Be That Of Astrology, Dreams, Omen, Retributive Judgment, Or The Like, In All Of Which The Deluded Believers Observe Events Which Are Fulfilled, But Neglect And Pass Over Their Failure, Though It Be Much More Common.

-Francis Bacon

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All Superstition Is Much

Francis Bacon

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All Superstition Is Much The Same Whether It Be That Of Astrology, Dreams, Omen, Retributive Judgment, Or The Like, In All Of Which The Deluded Believers Observe Events Which Are Fulfilled, But Neglect And Pass Over Their Failure, Though It Be Much More Common.

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Children Sweeten Labours, But They Make Misfortunes More Bitter.

Innovations, Which Are The Births Of Time.

Such Is The Way Of All Superstition, Whether In Astrology, Dreams, Omens, Divine Judgments, Or The Like; Wherein Men, Having A Delight In Such Vanities, Mark The Events Where They Are Fulfilled, But Where They Fail, Though This Happen Much Oftener.

Before I Start Painting I Have A Slightly Ambiguous Feeling: Happiness Is A Special Excitement Because Unhappiness Is Always Possible A Moment Later.

I'm Just Trying To Make Images As Accurately As Possible Off My Nervous System As I Can.

All Painting Is An Accident. But It's Also Not An Accident, Because One Must Select What Part Of The Accident One Chooses To Preserve.

To Seek To Extinguish Anger Utterly Is But A Bravery Of The Stoics. We Have Better Oracles: 'be Angry, But Sin Not.' 'let Not The Sun Go Down Upon Your Wrath.'

By This Means We Presume We Have Established For Ever, A True And Legitimate Marriage Between The Empirical And Rational Faculty; Whose Fastidious And Unfortunate Divorce And Separation Hath Troubled And Disordered The Whole Race And Generation Of Mankind.

For There Is A Great Difference In Delivery Of The Mathematics , Which Are The Most Abstracted Of Knowledges, And Policy , Which Is The Most Immersed. And Howsoever Contention Hath Been Moved , Touching A Uniformity Of Method In Multiformity Of Matter, Yet We See How That Opinion, Besides The Weakness Of It, Hath Been Of Ill Desert Towards Learning, As That Which Taketh The Way To Reduce Learning To Certain Empty And Barren Generalities; Being But The Very Husks And Shells Of Sciences, All The Kernel Being Forced Out And Expulsed With The Torture And Press Of The Method.

There Is Nothing More Certain In Nature Than That It Is Impossible For Any Body To Be Utterly Annihilated.

He Who Desires Solitude Is Either An Animal Or A God.

Reading Maketh A Full Man; And Writing An Axact Man. And, Therefore, If A Man Write Little, He Need Have A Present Wit; And If He Read Little, He Need Have Much Cunning To Seem To Know Which He Doth Not.

For Friends... Do But Look Upon Good Books: They Are True Friends, That Will Neither Flatter Nor Dissemble.

Fashion Is Only The Attempt To Realize Art In Living Forms And Social Intercourse.

The Registering Of Doubts Hath Two Excellent Uses: The One, That It Saveth Philosophy From Errors And Falsehoods; When That Which Is Not Fully Appearing Is Not Collected Into Assertion, Whereby Error Might Draw Error, But Reserved In Doubt: The Other, That The Entry Of Doubts Are As So Many Suckers Or Sponges To Draw Use Of Knowledge; Insomuch As That Which, If Doubts Had Not Preceded, A Man Should Never Have Advised, But Passed It Over Without Note, By The Suggestion And Solicitation Of Doubts, Is Made To Be Attended And Applied.

Friendship Redoubleth Joys, And Cutteth Griefs In Half.

Reading Maketh A Full Man; Conference A Ready Man; And Writing An Exact Man.

Death Is A Friend Of Ours; And He That Is Not Ready To Entertain Him Is Not At Home.

Speech Of Yourself Ought To Be Seldom And Well Chosen.

The Person Is A Poor Judge Who By An Action Can Be Disgraced More In Failing Than They Can Be Honored In Succeeding.

Why Should A Man Be In Love With His Fetters, Though Of Gold?

Suspicion Amongst Thoughts Are Like Bats Amongst Birds, They Never Fly By Twilight.

You Cannot Teach A Child To Take Care Of Himself Unless You Will Let Him Try To Take Care Of Himself. He Will Make Mistakes And Out Of These Mistakes Will Come His Wisdom.

If We Do Not Maintain Justice, Justice Will Not Maintain Us.

Criminal Justice

He Was Reputed One Of The Wise Men That Made Answer To The Question When A Man Should Marry? 'a Young Man Not Yet, An Elder Man Not At All.'

The Virtue Of Prosperity Is Temperance; The Virtue Of Adversity Is Fortitude.

If Money Be Not Thy Servant, It Will Be Thy Master. The Covetous Man Cannot So Properly Be Said To Possess Wealth, As That May Be Said To Possess Him.

Great Art Is Deeply Ordered. Even If Within The Order There May Be Enormously Instinctive And Accidental Things, Nevertheless They Come Out Of A Desire For Ordering And For Returning Fact Onto The Nervous System In A More Violent Way.

In Philosophy, The Contemplations Of Man Do Either Penetrate Unto God, Or Are Circumferred To Nature, Or Are Reflected And Reverted Upon Himself. Out Of Which Several Inquiries There Do Arise Three Knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, And Human Philosophy Or Humanity. For All Things Are Marked And Stamped With This Triple Character Of The Power Of God, The Difference Of Nature And The Use Of Man.

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice.

Men Are Rather Beholden ... Generally To Chance Or Anything Else, Than To Logic, For The Invention Of Arts And Sciences.

Excusations, Cessions, Modesty Itself Well Governed, Are But Arts Of Ostentation.

But This Is That Which Will Dignify And Exalt Knowledge: If Contemplation And Action Be More Nearly And Straitly Conjoined And United Together Than They Have Been: A Conjunction Like Unto That Of The Highest Planets, Saturn, The Planet Of Rest And Contemplation, And Jupiter, The Planet Of Civil Society And Action.

Mahomet Made The People Believe That He Would Call A Hill To Him, And From The Top Of It Offer Up His Prayers For The Observers Of His Law. The People Assembled: Mahomet Called The Hill To Come To Him Again And Again; And When The Hill Stood Still, He Was Never A Whit Abashed, But Said, 'if The Hill Will Not Come To Mahomet, Mahomet Will Go To The Hill.'

Men In Great Place Are Thrice Servants: Servants Of The Sovereign Or State, Servants Of Fame, And Servants Of Business.

And As For Mixed Mathematics, I May Only Make This Prediction, That There Cannot Fail To Be More Kinds Of Them, As Nature Grows Further Disclosed.

The Sun, Though It Passes Through Dirty Places, Yet Remains As Pure As Before.

Who Ever Is Out Of Patience Is Out Of Possession Of Their Soul.

For It Is Most True That A Natural And Secret Hatred And Aversation Towards Society In Any Man, Hath Somewhat Of The Savage Beast.

I Always Think Of Myself Not So Much As A Painter But As A Medium For Accident And Chance.

I Feel That I Am Much Freer If I'm On My Own, But I'm Sure That There Are A Lot Of Painters Who Would Perhaps Be Even More Inventive If They Had People Round Them... I Find That If I Am On My Own I Can Allow The Paint To Dictate To Me. So The Images That I'm Putting Down On The Canvas Dictate The Thing To Me And It Gradually Builds Up And Comes Along.

Philosophy When Superficially Studied, Excites Doubt, When Thoroughly Explored, It Dispels It.

Overcoming Doubt

Friends Are Thieves Of Time.

The Noblest Works And Foundations Have Proceeded From Childless Men, Which Have Sought To Express The Images Of Their Minds Where Those Of Their Bodies Have Failed.

There Is No Comparison Between That Which Is Lost By Not Succeeding And That Which Is Lost By Not Trying.

Great Hypocrites Are The Real Atheists.

Young Men, In The Conduct And Manage Of Actions, Embrace More Than They Can Hold; Stir More Than They Can Quiet; Fly To The End, Without Consideration Of The Means And Degrees; Pursue Some Few Principles, Which They Have Chanced Upon Absurdly; Care Not To Innovate, Which Draws Unknown Inconveniences; Use Extreme Remedies At First; And, That Which Doubleth All Errors, Will Not Acknowledge Or Retract Them; Like An Unready Horse, That Will Neither Stop Nor Turn.

Nor Do Apophthegms Only Serve For Ornament And Delight, But Also For Action And Civil Use, As Being The Edge-tools Of Speech Which Cut And Penetrate The Knots Of Business And Affairs: For Occasions Have Their Revolutions, And What Has Once Been Advantageously Used May Be So Again, Either As An Old Thing Or A New One.

God's First Creature, Which Was Light.

The Cause And Root Of Nearly All Evils In The Sciences Is This-that While We Falsely Admire And Extol The Powers Of The Human Mind We Neglect To Seek For Its True Helps.

Men Seem Neither To Understand Their Riches Nor Their Strength. Of The Former They Believe Greater Things Than They Should; Of The Latter, Less.

Reading Maketh A Full Man.

In Every Great Time There Is Some One Idea At Work Which Is More Powerful Than Any Other, And Which Shapes The Events Of The Time And Determines Their Ultimate Issues.

There Is No Doubt But Men Of Genius And Leisure May Carry Our Method To Greater Perfection, But, Having Had Long Experience, We Have Found None Equal To It For The Commodiousness It Affords In Working With The Understanding.

God Almighty First Planted A Garden. And Indeed It Is The Purest Of Human Pleasures. It Is The Greatest Refreshment To The Spirits Of Man, Without Which Buildings And Palaces Are But Gross Handiworks. And A Man Shall Ever See, That When Ages Grow To Civility And Elegancy, Men Come To Build Stately Sooner Than To Garden Finely, As If Gardening Were The Greater Perfection.

The Idols Of Tribe Have Their Foundation In Human Nature Itself, And In The Tribe Or Race Of Men. For It Is A False Assertion That The Sense Of Man Is The Measure Of Things. On The Contrary, All Perceptions As Well Of The Sense As Of The Mind Are According To The Measure Of The Individual And Not According To The Measure Of The Universe. And The Human Understanding Is Like A False Mirror, Which, Receiving Rays Irregularly, Distorts And Discolors The Nature Of Things By Mingling Its Own Nature With It.

He That Seeketh To Be Eminent Amongst Able Men Hath A Great Task; But That Is Ever Good For The Public. But He That Plots To Be The Only Figure Amongst Ciphers Is The Decay Of A Whole Age.

The Dignity Of This End Of Endowment Of Man's Life With New Commodity Appeareth By The Estimation That Antiquity Made Of Such As Guided Thereunto ; For Whereas Founders Of States, Lawgivers, Extirpators Of Tyrants, Fathers Of The People, Were Honoured But With The Titles Of Demigods, Inventors Ere Ever Consecrated Among The Gods Themselves.

For Cleanness Of Body Was Ever Esteemed To Proceed From A Due Reverence To God, To Society, And To Ourselves.

It Is Rightly Laid Down That 'true Knowledge Is Knowledge By Causes'. Also The Establishment Of Four Causes Is Not Bad: Material, Formal, Efficient And Final.

Friendship Maketh Daylight In The Understanding, Out Of Darkness And Confusion Of Thoughts.

A Cat Will Never Drown If She Sees The Shore.

...those Experiments Be Not Only Esteemed Which Have An Immediate And Present Use, But Those Principally Which Are Of Most Universal Consequence For Invention Of Other Experiments, And Those Which Give More Light To The Invention Of Causes; For The Invention Of The Mariner's Needle, Which Giveth The Direction, Is Of No Less Benefit For Navigation Than The Invention Of The Sails, Which Give The Motion.

A Man Cannot Speak To His Son, But As A Father; To His Wife, But As A Husband; To His Enemy, But Upon Terms: Whereas A Friend May Speak, As The Case Requires, And Not As It Sorteth With The Person.

A Little Science Estranges A Man From God; A Lot Of Science Brings Him Back.

You Could Say That I Have No Inspiration, That I Only Need To Paint.

Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind.

There Is A Wisdom In This Beyond The Rules Of Physic: A Man's Own Observation What He Finds Good Of And What He Finds Hurt Of Is The Best Physic To Preserve Health.

Parents Who Wish To Train Up Their Children In The Way They Should Go Must Go In The Way In Which They Would Have Their Children Go.

Ill Fortune Never Crushed That Man Whom Good Fortune Deceived Not.

It Is The Peculiar And Perpetual Error Of The Human Understanding To Be More Moved And Excited By Affirmatives Than By Negatives

There Are And Can Be Only Two Ways Of Searching Into And Discovering Truth. The One Flies From The Senses And Particulars To The Most General Axioms, And From These Principles, The Truth Of Which It Takes For Settled And Immovable, Proceeds To Judgment And To The Discovery Of Middle Axioms. And This Way Is Now In Fashion. The Other Derives Axioms From The Senses And Particulars, Rising By A Gradual And Unbroken Ascent, So That It Arrives At The Most General Axioms Last Of All. This Is The True Way, But As Yet Untried.

Let No One Think Or Maintain That A Person Can Search Too Far Or Be Too Well Studied In Either The Book Of God's Word Or The Book Of God's Works.

It Is As Natural To Die As To Be Born; And To A Little Infant, Perhaps, The One Is As Painful As The Other.

The Logic Now In Use Serves Rather To Fix And Give Stability To The Errors Which Have Their Foundation In Commonly Received Notions Than To Help The Search For Truth. So It Does More Harm Than Good.

Lukewarm Persons Think They May Accommodate Points Of Religion By Middle Ways And Witty Reconcilements,--as If They Would Make An Arbitrament Between God And Man.

The Human Understanding Is No Dry Light, But Receives An Infusion From The Will And Affections... What A Man Had Rather Were True He More Readily Believes.

I Use All Sorts Of Things To Work With: Old Brooms, Old Sweaters, And All Kinds Of Peculiar Tools And Materials... I Paint To Excite Myself, And Make Something For Myself.

Since Custom Is The Principal Magistrate Of Man's Life, Let Men By All Means Endeavor To Obtain Good Customs.

But The Idols Of The Market Place Are The Most Troublesome Of All: Idols Which Have Crept Into The Understanding Through Their Alliances With Words And Names. For Men Believe That Their Reason Governs Words. But Words Turn And Twist The Understanding. This It Is That Has Rendered Philosophy And The Sciences Inactive. Words Are Mostly Cut To The Common Fashion And Draw The Distinctions Which Are Most Obvious To The Common Understanding. Whenever An Understanding Of Greater Acuteness Or More Diligent Observation Would Alter Those Lines To Suit The True Distinctions Of Nature, Words Complain.

But The Images Of Men's Wits And Knowledges Remain In Books, Exempted From The Wrong Of Time, And Capable Of Perpetual Renovation.

All Superstition Is Much The Same Whether It Be That Of Astrology, Dreams, Omen, Retributive Judgment, Or The Like, In All Of Which The Deluded Believers Observe Events Which Are Fulfilled, But Neglect And Pass Over Their Failure, Though It Be Much More Common.

Lastly, I Would Address One General Admonition To All: That They Consider What Are The True Ends Of Knowledge, And That They Seek It Not Either For Pleasure Of The Mind, Or For Contention, Or For Superiority To Others, Or For Profit, Or Fame, Or Power, Or Any Of These Inferior Things: But For The Benefit And Use Of Life; And That They Perfect And Govern It In Charity.

Man, As The Minister And Interpreter Of Nature, Is Limited In Act And Understanding By His Observation Of The Order Of Nature; Neither His Understanding Nor His Power Extends Further.

When Any Of The Four Pillars Of Government-religion, Justice, Counsel, And Treasure-are Mainly Shaken Or Weakened, Men Had Need To Pray For Fair Weather.

I'll Follow, As They Say, For Reward. He That Rewards Me, God Reward Him. If I Do Grow Great, I'll Grow Less; For I'll Purge, And Leave Sack, And Live Cleanly, As A Nobleman Should Do.

I Feel Ever So Strongly That An Artist Must Be Nourished By His Passions And His Despairs. These Things Alter An Artist Whether For The Good Or The Better Or The Worse. It Must Alter Him. The Feelings Of Desperation And Unhappiness Are More Useful To An Artist Than The Feeling Of Contentment, Because Desperation And Unhappiness Stretch Your Whole Sensibility.

Boldness Is A Child Of Ignorance

Who Then To Frail Mortality Shall Trust But Limns The Water, Or But Writes In Dust.

Truth ... Is The Sovereign Good Of Human Nature.

Some Men Covet Knowledge Out Of A Natural Curiosity And Inquisitive Temper; Some To Entertain The Mind With Variety And Delight; Some For Ornament And Reputation; Some For Victory And Contention; Many For Lucre And A Livelihood; And But Few For Employing The Divine Gift Of Reason To The Use And Benefit Of Mankind.

The Genius Of Any Single Man Can No More Equal Learning, Than A Private Purse Hold Way With The Exchequer.

The Greatest Trust Between Man And Man Is The Trust Of Giving Counsel.

Nature Is Often Hidden, Sometimes Overcome, Seldom Extinguished.

Salomon Saith, There Is No New Thing Upon The Earth. So That As Plato Had An Imagination, That All Knowledge Was But Remembrance; So Salomon Giveth His Sentence, That All Novelty Is But Oblivion.

States Are Great Engines Moving Slowly.

Prosperity Is The Blessing Of The Old Testament; Adversity Is The Blessing Of The New.

Christian Inspirational

I Would Like, In My Arbitrary Way, To Bring One Nearer To The Actual Human Being.

Truth Comes Out Of Error More Readily Than Out Of Confusion.

The Fortune Which Nobody Sees Makes A Person Happy And Unenvied.

We Read That We Ought To Forgive Our Enemies; But We Do Not Read That We Ought To Forgive Our Friends.

All Will Come Out In The Washing.

He That Hath Knowledge Spareth His Words.

Nothing Destroys Authority More Than The Unequal And Untimely Interchange Of Power Stretched Too Far And Relaxed Too Much.

To Say That A Man Lieth, Is As Much To Say, As That He Is Brave Towards God, And A Coward Towards Men.

Boldness Is Ever Blind, For It Sees Not Dangers And Inconveniences Whence It Is Bad In Council Though Good In Execution.

I Regret Not Starting To Paint Earlier...it Is One Of The Few Things I Do Regret.

When Christ Came Into The World, Peace Was Sung; And When He Went Out Of The World, Peace Was Bequeathed.

I Foresee It And Yet I Hardly Ever Carry It Out As I Foresee It. It Transforms Itself By The Actual Paint. I Don't In Fact Know Very Often What The Paint Will Do, And It Does Many Things Which Are Very Much Better Than I Could Make It Do.

Great Changes Are Easier Than Small Ones.

The Cord Breaketh At Last By The Weakest Pull.

Wonder Is The Seed Of Knowledge

A Just Fear Of An Imminent Danger, Though Be No Blow Given, Is A Lawful Cause Of War.

Atheism Leads A Man To Sense, To Philosophy, To Natural Piety, To Laws, To Reputation: All Of Which May Be Guides To An Outward Moral Virtue.

Atheism Is Rather In The Lip, Than In The Heart Of Man.

I Hold Every Man A Debtor To His Profession.

None Of The Affections Have Been Noted To Fascinate And Bewitch But Envy.

The Master Of Superstition, Is The People; And In All Superstition, Wise Men Follow Fools; And Arguments Are Fitted To Practice, In A Reversed Order.

Generally, Youth Is Like The First Cogitations, Not So Wise As The Second. For There Is A Youth In Thoughts, As Well As In Ages. And Yet The Invention Of Young Men, Is More Lively Than That Of Old; And Imaginations Stream Into Their Minds Better, And, As It Were, More Divinely.

God Has, In Fact, Written Two Books, Not Just One. Of Course, We Are All Familiar With The First Book He Wrote, Namely Scripture. But He Has Written A Second Book Called Creation.

An Illustrational Form Tells You Through The Intelligence Immediately What The Form Is About, Whereas A Non-illustrational Form Works First Upon Sensation And Then Slowly Leaks Back Into The Fact.

Whatever You Can, Count.

All The Crimes On Earth Do Not Destroy So Many Of The Human Race Nor Alienate So Much Property As Drunkenness.

It Is The True Office Of History To Represent The Events Themselves, Together With The Counsels, And To Leave The Observations And Conclusions Thereupon To The Liberty And Faculty Of Every Man's Judgment

An Artist Must Learn To Be Nourished By His Passions And By His Despairs.

No One Has Yet Been Found So Firm Of Mind And Purpose As Resolutely To Compel Himself To Sweep Away All Theories And Common Notions, And To Apply The Understanding, Thus Made Fair And Even, To A Fresh Examination Of Particulars. Thus It Happens That Human Knowledge, As We Have It, Is A Mere Medley And Ill-digested Mass, Made Up Of Much Credulity And Much Accident, And Also Of The Childish Notions Which We At First Imbibed.

The Rising Unto Place Is Laborious, And By Pains Men Come To Greater Pains; And It Is Sometimes Base, And By Indignities Men Come To Dignities. The Standing Is Slippery, And The Regress Is Either A Downfall, Or At Least An Eclipse.

Aristotle... A Mere Bond-servant To His Logic, Thereby Rendering It Contentious And Well Nigh Useless.

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice, Which The More A Man's Nature Runs To, The More Ought Law To Weed It Out.

By Far The Best Proof Is Experience.

Atheism Leaves A Man To Sense, To Philosophy, To Natural Piety, To Laws, To Reputation, All Which May Be Guides To An Outward Moral Virtue, Though Religion Were Not; But Superstition Dismounts All These, And Erects An Absolute Monarchy In The Minds Of Men.

The Eye Of Understanding Is Like The Eye Of The Sense; For As You May See Great Objects Through Small Crannies Or Levels, So You May See Great Axioms Of Nature Through Small And Contemptible Instances.

The Zeal Which Begins With Hypocrisy Must Conclude In Treachery At First It Deceives, At Last It Betrays

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

There Is Nothing Makes A Man Suspect Much, More Than To Know Little, And Therefore Men Should Remedy Suspicion By Procuring To Know More, And Not Keep Their Suspicions In Smother.

A Principal Fruit Of Friendship, Is The Ease And Discharge Of The Fullness And Swellings Of The Heart, Which Passions Of All Kinds Do Cause And Induce.

We Only Have Our Nervous System To Paint.

He That Will Not Apply New Remedies Must Expect New Evils; For Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

A Man That Hath No Virtue In Himself, Ever Envieth Virtue In Others. For Men's Minds, Will Either Feed Upon Their Own Good, Or Upon Others' Evil; And Who Wanteth The One, Will Prey Upon The Other; And Whoso Is Out Of Hope, To Attain To Another's Virtue, Will Seek To Come At Even Hand, By Depressing Another's Fortune.

Wise Sayings Are Not Only For Ornament, But For Action And Business, Having A Point Or Edge, Whereby Knots In Business Are Pierced And Discovered.

Riches Are For Spending, And Spending For Honor And Good Actions; Therefore Extraordinary Expense Must Be Limited By The Worth Of The Occasion.

The Inquiry Of Truth, Which Is The Love-making, Or The Wooing Of It, The Knowledge Of Truth, Which Is The Presence Of It, And The Belief Of Truth, Which Is The Enjoying Of It, Is The Sovereign Good Of Human Nature.

There Are Many Wise Men That Have Secret Hearts And Transparent Countenances.

There Is A Difference Between Happiness And Wisdom: He That Thinks Himself The Happiest Man Is Really So; But He That Thinks Himself The Wisest Is Generally The Greatest Fool.

I Think That One Of The Things Is That, If You Are Going To Decide To Be A Painter, You Have Got To Decide That You Are Not Going To Be Afraid Of Making A Fool Of Yourself. I Think Another Thing Is To Be Able To Find Subjects Which Really Absorb You To Try And Do. I Feel That Without A Subject You Automatically Go Back Into Decoration Because You Haven't Got The Subject Which Is Always Eating Into You To Bring It Back - And The Greatest Art Always Returns You To The Vulnerability Of The Human Situation.

The Correlative To Loving Our Neighbors As Ourselves Is Hating Ourselves As We Hate Our Neighbors.

It Cannot Be Denied That Outward Accidents Conduce Much To Fortune, Favor, Opportunity, Death Of Others, Occasion Fitting Virtue; But Chiefly, The Mold Of A Man's Fortune Is In His Own Hands

We Must See Whether The Same Clock With Weights Will Go Faster At The Top Of A Mountain Or At The Bottom Of A Mine; It Is Probable, If The Pull Of The Weights Decreases On The Mountain And Increases In The Mine, That The Earth Has Real Attraction.

There Is A Cunning Which We In England Call "the Turning Of The Cat" In The Pan; Which Is, When That Which A Man Says To Another, He Says It As If Another Had Said It To Him.

Painting Today Is Pure Intuition And Luck And Taking Advantage Of What Happens When You Splash The Stuff Down.

A Man Must Make His Opportunity, As Oft As Find It.

Journeys At Youth Are Part Of The Education; But At Maturity, Are Part Of The Experience.

Of Great Wealth There Is No Real Use, Except In Its Distribution, The Rest Is Just Conceit.

Upon A Given Body To Generate And Superinduce A New Nature Or New Natures Is The Work And Aim Of Human Power. To Discover The Form Of A Given Nature, Or Its True Difference, Or Its Causal Nature, Or Fount Of Its Emanation... This Is The Work And Aim Of Human Knowledge.

First Therefore Let Us Seek The Dignity Of Knowledge In The Archetype Or First Platform, Which Is In The Attributes And Acts Of God, As Far As They Are Revealed To Man And May Be Observed With Sobriety; Wherein We May Not Seek It By The Name Of Learning; For All Learning Is Knowledge Acquired, And All Knowledge In God Is Original: And Therefore We Must Look For It By Another Name, That Of Wisdom Or Sapience, As The Scriptures Call It.

The Nature Of Things Betrays Itself More Readily Under The Vexations Of Art Than In Its Natural Freedom.

Suspicions That The Mind, Of Itself, Gathers, Are But Buzzes; But Suspicions That Are Artificially Nourished And Put Into Men's Heads By The Tales And Whisperings Of Others, Have Stings.

Science Is But An Image Of The Truth.

It Is Nothing Won To Admit Men With An Open Door, And To Receive Them With A Shut And Reserved Countenance.

Do Not Wonder If The Common People Speak More Truly Than Those Above Them: They Speak More Safely.

I Do Not Believe That Any Man Fears To Be Dead, But Only The Stroke Of Death.

I Had Rather Believe All The Fables In The Legend, And The Talmud, And The Alcoran, Than That This Universal Frame Is Without A Mind.

Of All Virtues And Dignities Of The Mind, Goodness Is The Greatest, Being The Character Of The Deity; And Without It, Man Is A Busy, Mischievous, Wretched Thing.

Medical Men Do Not Know The Drugs They Use, Nor Their Prices.

The Bee Enclosed And Through The Amber Shown Seems Buried In The Juice Which Was His Own.

If Vices Were Profitable, The Virtuous Man Would Be The Sinner.

One Always Starts Work With The Subject, No Matter How Tenuous It Is, And One Constructs An Artificial Structure By Which One Can Trap The Reality Of The Subject-matter That One Has Started From.

The Joys Of Parents Are Secret, And So Are Their Grieves And Fears.

Why Should I Be Angry With A Man For Loving Himself Better Than Me?

Certainly Virtue Is Like Precious Odors, Most Fragrant When They Are Incensed, Or Crushed: For Prosperity Doth Best Discover Vice, But Adversity Doth Best Discover Virtue.

God Has Placed No Limits To The Exercise Of The Intellect He Has Given Us, On This Side Of The Grave.

There Is In Man's Nature A Secret Inclination And Motion Towards Love Of Others, Which, If It Be Not Spent Upon Some One Or A Few, Doth Naturally Spread Itself Towards Many, And Maketh Men Become Humane And Charitable, As It Is Seen Sometimes In Friars. Nuptial Love Maketh Mankind, Friendly Love Perfecteth It, But Wanton Love Corrupteth And Embaseth It.

Envy Is Ever Joined With The Comparing Of A Man's Self; And Where There Is No Comparison, No Envy.

In Charity There Is No Excess.

Perils Commonly Ask To Be Paid In Pleasures.

To Suffering There Is A Limit; To Fearing, None.

I Think I Tend To Destroy The Better Paintings, Or Those That Have Been Better To A Certain Extent. I Try And Take Them Further, And They Lose All Their Qualities, And They Lose Everything. I Think I Would Say That I Destroy All The Better Paintings.

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

Take An Arrow, And Hold It In Flame For The Space Of Ten Pulses, And When It Cometh Forth You Shall Find Those Parts Of The Arrow Which Were On The Outsides Of The Flame More Burned, Blacked, And Turned Almost To Coal, Whereas The Midst Of The Flame Will Be As If The Fire Had Scarce Touched It. This Is An Instance Of Great Consequence For The Discovery Of The Nature Of Flame; And Sheweth Manifestly, That Flame Burneth More Violently Towards The Sides Than In The Midst.

In Mathematics I Can Report No Deficiency, Except It Be That Men Do Not Sufficiently Understand The Excellent Use Of Pure Mathematics.

For First Of All We Must Prepare A Natural And Experimental History, Sufficient And Good; And This Is The Foundation Of All; For We Are Not To Imagine Or Suppose, But To Discover, What Nature Does Or May Be Made To Do.

Men Fear Death As Children Fear To Go In The Dark; And As That Natural Fear In Children Is Increased By Tales, So Is The Other.

Truth Is A Good Dog; But Always Beware Of Barking Too Close To The Heels Of An Error, Lest You Get Your Brains Kicked Out.

Therefore If A Man Look Sharply And Attentively, He Shall See Fortune; For Though She Be Blind, Yet She Is Not Invisible.

If You Dissemble Sometimes Your Knowledge Of That You Are Thought To Know, You Shall Be Thought, Another Time, To Know That You Know Not.

There Was Never Law, Or Sect, Or Opinion Did So Much Magnify Goodness, As The Christian Religion Doth.

It Is By Discourse That Men Associate, And Words Are Imposed According To The Apprehension Of The Vulgar. And Therefore The Ill And Unfit Choice Of Words Wonderfully Obsesses The Understanding. Nor Do The Definitions Or Explanations Wherewith In Some Things Learned Men Are Wont To Guard And Defend Themselves, By Any Means Set The Matter Right. But Words Plainly Force And Overrule The Understanding, And Throw All Into Confusion, And Lead Men Away Into Innumerable And Inane Controversies And Fancies.

Next To Religion, Let Your Care Be To Promote Justice.

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear Itself. Nothing Grievous But To Yield To Grief.

No Man's Fortune Can Be An End Worthy Of His Being.

Of All Things Known To Mortals, Wine Is The Most Powerful And Effectual For Exciting And Inflaming The Passions Of Mankind, Being Common Fuel To Them All.

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight

I Have To Hope That My Instincts Will Do The Right Thing, Because I Can't Erase What I Have Done. And If I Drew Something First, Then My Paintings Would Be Illustrations Of Drawings.

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear.

Nothing Opens The Heart Like A True Friend, To Whom You May Impart Griefs, Joys, Fears, Hopes...and Whatever Lies Upon The Heart.

If You Want To Convey Fact, This Can Only Ever Be Done Through A Form Of Distortion. You Must Distort To Transform What Is Called Appearance Into Image.

The Best Preservative To Keep The Mind In Health Is The Faithful Admonition Of A Friend.

The More A Man Drinketh Of The World, The More It Intoxicateth.

Nor Is Mine A Trumpet Which Summons And Excites Men To Cut Each Other To Pieces With Mutual Contradictions, Or To Quarrel And Fight With One Another; But Rather To Make Peace Between Themselves, And Turning With United Forces Against The Nature Of Things

There Is No Great Concurrence Between Learning And Wisdom.

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