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Antiquities, Or Remnants Of History, Are, As Was Said, Tanquam Tabula Naufragii: When Industrious Persons, By An Exact And Scrupulous Diligence And Observation, Out Of Monuments, Names, Words, Proverbs, Traditions, Private Records And Evidences, Fragments Of Stories, Passages Of Books That Concern Not Story, And The Like, Do Save And Recover Somewhat From The Deluge Of Time.

-Francis Bacon

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Antiquities, Or Remnants Of

Francis Bacon

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Antiquities, Or Remnants Of History, Are, As Was Said, Tanquam Tabula Naufragii: When Industrious Persons, By An Exact And Scrupulous Diligence And Observation, Out Of Monuments, Names, Words, Proverbs, Traditions, Private Records And Evidences, Fragments Of Stories, Passages Of Books That Concern Not Story, And The Like, Do Save And Recover Somewhat From The Deluge Of Time.

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Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight

Half Of Science Is Putting Forth The Right Questions.

Right Questions

The Human Understanding Is Of Its Own Nature Prone To Suppose The Existence Of More Order And Regularity In The World Than It Finds. And Though There Be Many Things In Nature Which Are Singular And Unmatched, Yet It Devises For Them Parallels And Conjugates And Relatives Which Do Not Exist. Hence The Fiction That All Celestial Bodies Move In Perfect Circles, Spirals And Dragons Being (except In Name) Utterly Rejected.

Friendship Increases In Visiting Friends, But In Visiting Them Seldom.

But By Far The Greatest Hindrance And Aberration Of The Human Understanding Proceeds From The Dullness, Incompetency, And Deceptions Of The Senses; In That Things Which Strike The Sense Outweigh Things Which Do Not Immediately Strike It, Though They Be More Important. Hence It Is That Speculation Commonly Ceases Where Sight Ceases; Insomuch That Of Things Invisible There Is Little Or No Observation.

The Breath Of Flowers Is Far Sweeter In The Air Than In The Hand.

To Spend Too Much Time In Studies Is Sloth; To Use Them Too Much For Ornament Is Affection; To Make Judgment Wholly By Their Rules Is The Humor Of A Scholar.

Rather To Excite Your Judgment Briefly Than To Inform It Tediously.

Art Is Man Added To Nature.

We Are Much Beholden To Machiavel And Others, That Write What Men Do, And Not What They Ought To Do.

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.

Important Families Are Like Potatoes. The Best Parts Are Underground.

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.

The Inclination To Goodness Is Imprinted Deeply In The Nature Of Man.

Man Seeketh In Society Comfort, Use And Protection.

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.

The True Bounds And Limitations, Whereby Human Knowledge Is Confined And Circumscribed,... Are Three: The First, That We Do Not So Place Our Felicity In Knowledge, As We Forget Our Mortality: The Second, That We Make Application Of Our Knowledge, To Give Ourselves Repose And Contentment, And Not Distates Or Repining: The Third, That We Do Not Presume By The Contemplation Of Nature To Attain To The Mysteries Of God.

The Monuments Of Wit Survive The Monuments Of Power.

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.

The Creative Process Is A Cocktail Of Instinct, Skill, Culture And A Highly Creative Feverishness. It Is Not Like A Drug; It Is A Particular State When Everything Happens Very Quickly, A Mixture Of Consciousness And Unconsciousness , Of Fear And Pleasure; It's A Little Like Making Love, The Physical Act Of Love.

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.

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

The Divisions Of Science Are Not Like Different Lines That Meet In One Angle, But Rather Like The Branches Of Trees That Join In One Trunk.

He That Hath A Wife And Children Hath Given Hostages To Fortune.

A Young Man Not Yet, An Elder Man Not At All.

I Want To Make Portraits And Images. I Don't Know How. Out Of Despair, I Just Use Paint Anyway. Suddenly The Things You Make Coagulate And Take On Just The Shape You Intend. Totally Accurate Marks, Which Are Outside Representational Marks.

Lies Are Sufficient To Breed Opinion, And Opinion Brings On Substance.

It Is The Wisdom Of The Crocodiles, That Shed Tears When They Would Devour.

God Loveth The Clean.

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.

Write Down The Thoughts Of The Moment. Those That Come Unsought For Are Commonly The Most Valuable.

Anger Is Certainly A Kind Of Baseness; As It Appears Well In The Weakness Of Those Subjects In Whom It Reigns; Children, Women, Old Folks, Sick Folks. Only Men Must Beware, That They Carry Their Anger Rather With Scorn, Than With Fear; So That They May Seem Rather To Be Above The Injury, Than Below It; Which Is A Thing Easily Done, If A Man Will Give Law To Himself In It.

God Hangs The Greatest Weights Upon The Smallest Wires.

If I Sit And Daydream, The Images Rush By Like A Succession Of Colored Slides.

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

Criminal Justice

We Think According To Nature. We Speak According To Rules. We Act According To Custom.

The Only Hope [of Science] ... Is In Genuine Induction.

Some Paint Comes Across Directly Onto The Nervous System And Other Paint Tells You The Story In A Long Diatribe Through The Brain.

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

Silence Is The Virtue Of Fools.

The Lame Man Who Keeps The Right Road Outstrips The Runner Who Takes The Wrong One.

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.

It Is Idle To Expect Any Great Advancement In Science From The Superinducing And Engrafting Of New Things Upon Old. We Must Begin Anew From The Very Foundations, Unless We Would Revolve For Ever In A Circle With Mean And Contemptible Progress.

I Work For Posterity, These Things Requiring Ages For Their Accomplishment.

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.

The Less People Speak Of Their Greatness, The More We Think Of It.

If We Are To Achieve Things Never Before Accomplished We Must Employ Methods Never Before Attempted

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

It Is A Great Happiness When Men's Professions And Their Inclinations Accord.

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

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

I Loathe My Own Face, And I've Done Self-portraits Because I've Had Nobody Else To Do.

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.

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.

Choose The Life That Is Most Useful, And Habit Will Make It The Most Agreeable.

It Was A High Speech Of Seneca That "the Good Things Which Belong To Prosperity Are To Be Wished, But The Good Things That Belong To Adversity Are To Be Admired."

The Human Understanding When It Has Once Adopted An Opinion (either As Being The Received Opinion Or As Being Agreeable To Itself) Draws All Things Else To Support And Agree With It. And Though There Be A Greater Number And Weight Of Instances To Be Found On The Other Side, Yet These It Either Neglects And Despises, Or Else By Some Distinction Sets Aside And Rejects, In Order That By This Great And Pernicious Predetermination The Authority Of Its Former Conclusions May Remain Inviolate.

A Good Name Is Like Precious Ointment ; It Filleth All Round About, And Will Not Easily Away; For The Odors Of Ointments Are More Durable Than Those Of Flowers.

Chiefly The Mold Of A Man's Fortune Is In His Own Hands.

A Man That Studieth Revenge Keeps His Own Wounds Green.

A Graceful And Pleasing Figure Is A Perpetual Letter Of Recommendation.

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

All Artists Are Vain, They Long To Be Recognized And To Leave Something To Posterity. They Want To Be Loved, And At The Same Time They Want To Be Free. But Nobody Is Free.

A King That Would Not Feel His Crown Too Heavy For Him, Must Wear It Every Day; But If He Think It Too Light, He Knoweth Not Of What Metal It Is Made.

Virtue Is Like A Rich Stone, Best Plain Set.

Seek Ye First The Good Things Of The Mind, And The Rest Will Either Be Supplied Or Its Loss Will Not Be Felt.

The Colors That Show Best By Candlelight Are White, Carnation, And A Kind Of Sea-water Green.

It Has Well Been Said That The Arch-flatterer, With Whom All Petty Flatterers Have Intelligence, Is A Man's Self.

Boldness Is A Child Of Ignorance

Above All, Believe It, The Sweetest Canticle Is Nunc Dimittis, When A Man Hath Obtained Worthy Ends And Expectations. Death Hath This Also, That It Openeth The Gate To Good Fame, And Extinguisheth Envy.

The Desire Of Excessive Power Caused The Angels To Fall; The Desire Of Knowledge Caused Men To Fall.

One Of The Fathers Saith . . . That Old Men Go To Death, And Death Comes To Young Men.

Ask Counsel Of Both Timesof The Ancient Time What Is Best, And Of The Latter Time What Is Fittest.

Painting Is A Duality And Abstract Painting Is An Entirely Aesthetic Thing. It Always Remains On One Level. It Is Only Really Interesting In The Beauty Of Its Patterns Or Its Shapes.

Abstract Painting

Age Appears To Be Best In Four Things; Old Wood Best To Burn, Old Wine To Drink, Old Friends To Trust, And Old Authors To Read.

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.

The End Of Our Foundation Is The Knowledge Of Causes; And Secret Motions Of Things; And The Enlarging Of The Bounds Of Human Empire, To The Effecting Of All Things Possible.

It Is Not The Lie That Passeth Through The Mind, But The Lie That Sinketh In And Settleth In It, That Doth The Hurt.

But We Are Not Dedicating Or Building Any Capitol Or Pyramid To Human Pride, But Found A Holy Temple In The Human Intellect, On The Model Of The Universe... For Whatever Is Worthy Of Existence Is Worthy Of Knowledge-which Is The Image (or Echo) Of Existence.

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

The French Are Wiser Than They Seem, And The Spaniards Seem Wiser Than They Are.

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.

No Pleasure Is Comparable To The Standing Upon The Vantage-ground Of Truth.

Inspirational Life

Books Must Follow Sciences, And Not Sciences Books.

Let Every Student Of Nature Take This As His Rule, That Whatever The Mind Seizes Upon With Particular Satisfaction Is To Be Held In Suspicion.

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

Be So True To Thyself, As Thou Be Not False To Others.

Boost Self Esteem

Boost Self Confidence

Truth Is The Daughter Of Time, Not Of Authority.

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

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

Human Knowledge And Human Power Meet In One; For Where The Cause Is Not Known The Effect Cannot Be Produced. Nature To Be Commanded Must Be Obeyed; And That Which In Contemplation Is As The Cause Is In Operation As The Rule.

I Knew A Wise Man That Had It For A By-word, When He Saw Men Hasten To A Conclusion, "stay A Little, That We May Make An End The Sooner."

Friendship Redoubleth Joys, And Cutteth Griefs In Half.

All Will Come Out In The Washing.

The Best Armor Is To Keep Out Of Gunshot.

There Is Another Ground Of Hope That Must Not Be Omitted. Let Men But Think Over Their Infinite Expenditure Of Understanding, Time, And Means On Matters And Pursuits Of Far Less Use And Value; Whereof, If But A Small Part Were Directed To Sound And Solid Studies, There Is No Difficulty That Might Not Be Overcome.

Money Is Like Manure, Of Very Little Use Except It Be Spread.

The Syllogism Consists Of Propositions, Propositions Consist Of Words, Words Are Symbols Of Notions. Therefore If The Notions Themselves (which Is The Root Of The Matter) Are Confused And Over-hastily Abstracted From The Facts, There Can Be No Firmness In The Superstructure. Our Only Hope Therefore Lies In A True Induction.

In All Negotiations Of Difficulty, A Man May Not Look To Sow And Reap At Once; But Must Prepare Business, And So Ripen It By Degrees.

A Wise Man Will Make More Opportunities Than He Finds.

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.

Acorns Were Good Until Bread Was Found.

In Civil Business; What First? Boldness; What Second And Third? Boldness: And Yet Boldness Is A Child Of Ignorance And Baseness.

The Men Of Experiment Are Like The Ant, They Only Collect And Use; The Reasoners Resemble Spiders, Who Make Cobwebs Out Of Their Own Substance. But The Bee Takes The Middle Course, It Gathers Its Material From The Flowers Of The Garden And Field, But Transforms And Digests It By A Power Of Its Own.

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

What Is Truth? Said Jesting Pilate; And Would Not Stay For An Answer.

By Indignities Men Come To Dignities.

You Want Accuracy, But Not Representation. If You Know How To Make The Figuration, It Doesn't Work. Anything You Can Make, You Make By Accident. In Painting, You Have To Know What You Do, Not How, When You Do It.

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

All Colours Will Agree In The Dark.

Learning Hath His Infancy, When It Is But Beginning And Almost Childish; Then His Youth, When It Is Luxuriant And Juvenile; Then His Strength Of Years, When It Is Solid And Reduced; And Lastly His Old Age, When It Waxeth Dry And Exhaust.

Studies Serve For Delight, For Ornaments, And For Ability.

The Mystery Lies In The Irrationality By Which You Make Appearance - If It Is Not Irrational, You Make Illustration.

Some Books Should Be Tasted, Some Devoured, But Only A Few Should Be Chewed And Digested Thoroughly.

Love And Envy Make A Man Pine, Which Other Affections Do Not, Because They Are Not So Continual.

Money Is A Great Treasure That Only Increases As You Give It Away.

Deformed Persons Commonly Take Revenge On Nature.

Nay, Number Itself In Armies Importeth Not Much, Where The People Is Of Weak Courage; For, As Virgil Saith, It Never Troubles The Wolf How Many The Sheep Be.

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.

The Way Of Fortune Is Like The Milky Way In The Sky; Which Is A Meeting, Or Knot, Of A Number Of Small Stars, Not Seen Asunder, But Giving Light Together : So Are There A Number Of Little And Scarce Discerned Virtues, Or Rather Faculties And Customs, That Make Men Fortunate.

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.

If A Man's Wit Be Not Apt To Distinguish Or Find Differences, Let Him Study The Schoolmen; For They Are Cymini Sectores, Splitters Of Hairs.

A Good Conscience Is A Continual Feast.

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

In One And The Same Fire, Clay Grows Hard And Wax Melts.

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

There Is Nothing Makes A Man Suspect Much, More Than To Know Little.

Nakedness Is Uncomely, As Well In Mind As Body, And It Addeth No Small Reverence To Men's Manners And Actions If They Be Not Altogether Open. Therefore Set It Down: That A Habit Of Secrecy Is Both Politic And Moral.

Nature Is Often Hidden, Sometimes Overcome, Seldom Extinguished.

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.

Certainly Man Is Of Kin To The Beasts By His Body; And If He Be Not Kin To God By His Spirit, He Is A Base And Ignoble Creature.

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.

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.

But The Greatest Error Of All The Rest Is The Mistaking Or Misplacing Of The Last Or Farthest End Of Knowledge: For Men Have Entered Into A Desire Of Learning And Knowledge, Sometimes Upon A Natural Curiosity And Inquisitive Appetite; Sometimes To Entertain Their Minds With Variety And Delight; Sometimes For Ornament And Reputation; And Sometimes To Enable Them To Victory Of Wit And Contradiction; And Most Times For Lucre And Profession; And Seldom Sincerely To Give A True Account Of Their Gift Of Reason, To The Benefit And Use Of Men.

Children Sweeten Labours, But They Make Misfortunes More Bitter.

Photographs Are Not Only Points Of Reference... They're Often Triggers Of Ideas.

A Bad Man Is Worse When He Pretends To Be A Saint.

The Creative Process Is A Cocktail Of Instinct, Skill, Culture And A Highly Creative Feverishness.

By Far The Best Proof Is Experience.

We See Then How Far The Monuments Of Wit And Learning Are More Durable Than The Monuments Of Power, Or Of The Hands. For Have Not The Verses Of Homer Continued Twenty-five Hundred Years Or More, Without The Loss Of A Syllable Or Letter; During Which Time Infinite Palaces, Temples, Castles, Cities Have Been Decayed And Demolished?

The Poets Did Well To Conjoin Music And Medicine, In Apollo, Because The Office Of Medicine Is But To Tune The Curious Harp Of Man's Body And Reduce It To Harmony.

Rebellions Of The Belly Are The Worst.

It Is As Hard And Severe A Thing To Be A True Politician As To Be Truly Moral.

Fame Is Like A River, That Beareth Up Things Light And Swollen, And Drowns Things Weighty And Solid.

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

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

For Knowledge, Too, Is Itself Power.

For A Crowd Is Not Company; And Faces Are But A Gallery Of Pictures; And Talk But A Tinkling Cymbal, Where There Is No Love.

To Conclude, Therefore, Let No Man Upon A Weak Conceit Of Sobriety Or An Ill-applied Moderation Think Or Maintain That A Man Can Search Too Far, Or Be Too Well Studied In The Book Of God's Word, Or The Book Of God's Works, Divinity Or Philosophy; But Rather Let Men Endeavor An Endless Progress Or Proficience In Both; Only Let Men Beware That They Apply Both To Charity, And Not To Swelling; To Use, And Not To Ostentation; And Again, That They Do Not Unwisely Mingle Or Confound These Learnings Together.

Hope Is The Most Beneficial Of All The Affections, And Doth Much To The Prolongation Of Life.

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

I Would Live To Study, Not Study To Live.

Small Amounts Of Philosophy Lead To Atheism, But Larger Amounts Bring Us Back To God.

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.

Innovations, Which Are The Births Of Time.

It's Always Hopeless To Talk About Painting - One Never Does Anything But Talk Around It.

Base And Crafty Cowards Are Like The Arrow That Flieth In The Dark.

Many Secrets Of Art And Nature Are Thought By The Unlearned To Be Magical.

The Pencil Of The Holy Ghost Hath Labored More In Describing The Afflictions Of Job Than The Felicities Of Solomon.

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.

For Many Parts Of Nature Can Neither Be Invented With Sufficient Subtlety, Nor Demonstrated With Sufficient Perspicuity, Nor Accommodated Unto Use With Sufficient Dexterity, Without The Aid And Intervening Of The Mathematics, Of Which Sort Are Perspective, Music, Astronomy, Cosmography, Architecture, Engineery, And Divers Others.

First The Amendment Of Their Own Minds. For The Removal Of The Impediments Of The Mind Will Sooner Clear The Passages Of Fortune Than The Obtaining Fortune Will Remove The Impediments Of The Mind.

If You Can Talk About It, Why Paint It?

Habit, If Wisely And Skillfully Formed, Becomes Truly A Second Nature; But Unskillfully And Unmethodically Depicted, It Will Be As It Were An Ape Of Nature, Which Imitates Nothing To The Life, But Only Clumsily And Awkwardly

There Is No Such Flatterer As Is A Man's Self.

He Of Whom Many Are Afraid Ought Himself To Fear Many.

Read Not To Contradict And Confute; Nor To Believe And Take For Granted; Nor To Find Talk And Discourse; But To Weigh And Consider. Some Books Are To Be Tasted, Others To Be Swallowed, And Some Few To Be Chewed And Digested: That Is, Some Books Are To Be Read Only In Parts, Others To Be Read, But Not Curiously, And Some Few To Be Read Wholly, And With Diligence And Attention.

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

The General Root Of Superstition Is That Men Observe When Things Hit, And Not When They Miss, And Commit To Memory The One, And Pass Over The Other.

The Job Of The Artist Is Always To Deepen The Mystery.

People Prefer To Believe What They Want To Be True.

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

But The Best Demonstration By Far Is Experience, If It Go Not Beyond The Actual Experiment.

They Who Derive Their Worth From Their Ancestors Resemble Potatoes, The Most Valuable Part Of Which Is Underground.

A Cat Will Never Drown If She Sees The Shore.

I've Had Photographs Taken For Portraits Because I Very Much Prefer Working From The Photographs Than From Models... I Couldn't Attempt To Do A Portrait From Photographs Of Somebody I Didn't Know.

God Almighty First Planted A Garden. And Indeed, It Is The Purest Of Human Pleasures.

Believe Not Much Them That Seem To Despise Riches, For They Despise Them That Despair Of Them.

If A Man Be Gracious And Courteous To Strangers, It Shows He Is A Citizen Of The World.

They Are Ill Discoverers That Think There Is No Land, When They Can See Nothing But Sea.

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

For My Name And Memory I Leave To Men's Charitable Speeches, And To Foreign Nations And The Next Ages.

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.

He That Cometh To Seek After Knowledge, With A Mind To Scorn, Shall Be Sure To Find Matter For His Humour, But No Matter For His Instruction.

If Any Human Being Earnestly Desire To Push On To New Discoveries Instead Of Just Retaining And Using The Old; To Win Victories Over Nature As A Worker Rather Than Over Hostile Critics As A Disputant; To Attain, In Fact, Clear And Demonstrative Knowlegde Instead Of Attractive And Probable Theory; We Invite Him As A True Son Of Science To Join Our Ranks.

The Serpent If It Wants To Become The Dragon Must Eat Itself.

The Study Of Nature With A View To Works Is Engaged In By The Mechanic, The Mathematician, The Physician, The Alchemist, And The Magician; But By All As Things Now Are With Slight Endeavour And Scanty Success.

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.

They Are Happy Men Whose Natures Sort With Their Vocations.

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

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

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice.

What, Then, Remains But That We Still Should Cry, For Being Born, And, Being Born, To Die?

Knowledge Is A Rich Storehouse For The Glory Of The Creator And The Relief Of Man's Estate.

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

Discretion In Speech Is More Than Eloquence.

When A Bee Stings, She Dies. She Cannot Sting And Live. When Men Sting, Their Better Selves Die. Every Sting Kills A Better Instinct. Men Must Not Turn Bees And Kill Themselves In Stinging Others.

Riches Are A Good Hand Maiden, But A Poor Mistress.

Men Ought To Find The Difference Between Saltiness And Bitterness. Certainly, He That Hath A Satirical Vein, As He Maketh Others Afraid Of His Wit, So He Had Need Be Afraid Of Others' Memory.

Without Friends The World Is But A Wilderness.

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