Background Image

...

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

-Francis Bacon

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Believe Not Much Them

Francis Bacon

...

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

Views: 90477

Topic

More From Francis Bacon

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

Man Prefers To Believe What He Prefers To Be True.

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

I Believe In Deeply Ordered Chaos

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.

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

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

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

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.

It Is A Strange Desire, To Seek Power, And To Lose Liberty; Or To Seek Power Over Others, And To Lose Power Over A Man's Self.

God Never Wrought Miracles To Convince Atheism, Because His Ordinary Works Convince It.

By Indignities Men Come To Dignities.

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

There Is No Vice That Doth So Cover A Man With Shame As To Be Found False And Perfidious.

In Charity There Is No Excess.

Money Is A Great Servant But A Bad Master.

I Will Never Be An Old Man. To Me, Old Age Is Always 15 Years Older Than I Am.

The Monuments Of Wit Survive The Monuments Of Power.

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

Fortitude Is The Marshal Of Thought, The Armor Of The Will, And The Fort Of Reason.

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.

He That Gives Good Advice, Builds With One Hand; He That Gives Good Counsel And Example, Builds With Both; But He That Gives Good Admonition And Bad Example, Builds With One Hand And Pulls Down With The Other.

The Speaking In A Perpetual Hyperbole Is Comely In Nothing But Love.

Our Humanity Is A Poor Thing, Except For The Divinity That Stirs Within Us.

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

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.

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

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 A Cunning Which We In England Call The Rning Of The Cat In The Pan.

Moreover, The Works Already Known Are Due To Chance And Experiment Rather Than To Sciences; For The Sciences We Now Possess Are Merely Systems For The Nice Ordering And Setting Forth Of Things Already Invented; Not Methods Of Invention Or Directions For New Works.

In Revenge A Man Is But Even With His Enemy; For It Is A Princely Thing To Pardon, And Solomon Saith It Is The Glory Of A Man To Pass Over A Transgression.

You See, Painting Has Now Become, Or All Art Has Now Become Completely A Game, By Which Man Distracts Himself. What Is Fascinating Actually Is, That It's Going To Become Much More Difficult For The Artist, Because He Must Really Deepen The Game To Become Any Good At All.

To Spend Too Much Time In Studies Is Sloth.

Medicine Is A Science Which Hath Been (as We Have Said) More Professed Than Laboured, And Yet More Laboured Than Advanced: The Labour Having Been, In My Judgment, Rather In Circle Than In Progression. For I Find Much Iteration, But Small Addition. It Considereth Causes Of Diseases, With The Occasions Or Impulsions; The Diseases Themselves, With The Accidents; And The Cures, With The Preservation.

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

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

Prosperity Is Not Without Many Fears And Distastes; Adversity Not Without Many Comforts And Hopes.

There Is No Passion In The Mind Of Man So Weak, But It Mates And Masters The Fear Of Death . . . Revenge Triumphs Over Death; Love Slights It; Honor Aspireth To It; Grief Flieth To It.

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

By Far The Best Proof Is Experience.

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.

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

In Nature Things Move Violently To Their Place, And Calmly In Their Place.

It Is A Miserable State Of Mind To Have Few Things To Desire And Many Things To Fear.

It Is Good Discretion Not Make Too Much Of Any Man At The First; Because One Cannot Hold Out That Proportion.

As The Births Of Living Creatures At First Are Ill-shapen, So Are All Innovations, Which Are The Births Of Time.

Books Must Follow Sciences, And Not Sciences Books.

For Fountains, They Are A Great Beauty And Refreshment, But Pools Mar All, And Make The Garden Unwholesome, And Full Of Flies And Frogs.

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.

Be Not Penny-wise. Riches Have Wings. Sometimes They Fly Away Of Themselves, And Sometimes They Must Be Set Flying To Bring In More.

The Light That A Man Receives By Counsel From Another Is Drier And Purer Than That Which Comes From His Own Understanding And Judgment, Which Is Ever Infused And Drenched In His Affections And Customs.

Imagination Was Given To Man To Compensate Him For What He Is Not; A Sense Of Humor To Console Him For What He Is.

There Ought To Be Gardens For All Months In The Year, In Which, Severally, Things Of Beauty May Be Then In Season.

Hope Is A Good Breakfast, But It Is A Bad Supper.

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

I Would By All Means Have Men Beware, Lest Æsop's Pretty Fable Of The Fly That Sate [sic] On The Pole Of A Chariot At The Olympic Races And Said, 'what A Dust Do I Raise,' Be Verified In Them. For So It Is That Some Small Observation, And That Disturbed Sometimes By The Instrument, Sometimes By The Eye, Sometimes By The Calculation, And Which May Be Owing To Some Real Change In The Heaven, Raises New Heavens And New Spheres And Circles.

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

Vices Of The Time; Vices Of The Man.

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.

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

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

Half Of Science Is Putting Forth The Right Questions.

Right Questions

People Usually Think According To Their Inclinations, Speak According To Their Learning And Ingrained Opinions, But Generally Act According To Custom.

Such Philosophy As Shall Not Vanish In The Fume Of Subtile, Sublime, Or Delectable Speculation But Shall Be Operative To The Endowment And Betterment Of Man's Life.

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.

I Usually Accept Bribes From Both Sides So That Tainted Money Can Never Influence My Decision.

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.

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

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

But By Far The Greatest Obstacle To The Progress Of Science And To The Undertaking Of New Tasks And Provinces Therein Is Found In This-that Men Despair And Think Things Impossible.

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

Acorns Were Good Until Bread Was Found.

The Universe Must Not Be Narrowed Down To The Limit Of Our Understanding, But Our Understanding Must Be Stretched And Enlarged To Take In The Image Of The Universe As It Is Discovered.

The Worst Solitude Is To Have No Real Friendships.

...neither Is It Possible To Discover The More Remote And Deeper Parts Of Any Science, If You Stand But Upon The Level Of The Same Science, And Ascend Not To A Higher Science.

The Subtlety Of Nature Is Greater Many Times Over Than The Subtlety Of The Senses And Understanding.

Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

It Is In Life As It Is In Ways, The Shortest Way Is Commonly The Foulest, And Surely The Fairer Way Is Not Much About.

Because The Acts Or Events Of True History Have Not That Magnitude Which Satisfieth The Mind Of Man, Poesy Feigneth Acts And Events Greater And More Heroical.

Money Is A Good Servant, A Dangerous Master.

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

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.

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear.

Men Suppose Their Reason Has Command Over Their Words; Still It Happens That Words In Return Exercise Authority On Reason

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.

He That Hath Wife And Children Hath Given Hostages To Fortune; For They Are Impediments To Great Enterprises, Either Of Virtue Or Mischief.

So That Every Wand Or Staff Of Empire Is Forsooth Curved At Top.

Brutes By Their Natural Instinct Have Produced Many Discoveries, Whereas Men By Discussion And The Conclusions Of Reason Have Given Birth To Few Or None.

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

The Human Understanding, When Any Preposition Has Been Once Laid Down... Forces Everything Else To Add Fresh Support And Confirmation; And Although More Cogent And Abundant Instances May Exist To The Contrary, Yet It Either Does Not Observe Them Or It Despises Them, Or It Gets Rid Of And Rejects Them By Some Distinction, With Violent And Injurious Prejudice, Rather Than Sacrifice The Authority Of Its First Conclusions.

There Is In Human Nature Generally More Of The Fool Than Of The Wise.

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.

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.

Nevertheless If Any Skillful Servant Of Nature Shall Bring Force To Bear On Matter, And Shall Vex It And Drive It To Extremities As If With The Purpose Of Reducing It To Nothing, Then Will Matter (since Annihilation Or True Destruction Is Not Possible Except By The Omnipotence Of God) Finding Itself In These Straits, Turn And Transform Itself Into Strange Shapes, Passing From One Change To Another Till It Has Gone Through The Whole Circle And Finished The Period.

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

When A Traveler Returneth Home, Let Him Not Leave The Countries Where He Hath Traveled Altogether Behind Him.

Truth Can Never Be Reached By Just Listening To The Voice Of An Authority.

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.

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

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.

Of All Virtues And Dignities Of The Mind, Goodness Is The Greatest

They That Reverence To Much Old Times Are But A Scorn To The New.

Prosperity Discovers Vice, Adversity Discovers Virtue.

Many A Man's Strength Is In Opposition, And When He Faileth, He Grows Out Of Use.

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

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

The Genius, Wit, And The Spirit Of A Nation Are Discovered By Their Proverbs.

For Whatever Deserves To Exist Deserves Also To Be Known, For Knowledge Is The Image Of Existence, And Things Mean And Splendid Exist Alike.

Certainly, It Is Heaven Upon Earth, To Have A Man's Mind Move In Charity, Rest In Providence, And Turn Upon The Poles Of Truth.

It's Such An Extraordinary Supple Medium That You Never Do Quite Know What Paint Will Do.

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.

The World's A Bubble, And The Life Of Man, Less Than A Span.

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

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.

A Little Philosophy Inclineth Man's Mind To Atheism, But Depth In Philosophy Bringeth Men's Minds About To Religion.

Those Herbs Which Perfume The Air Most Delightfully, Not Passed By As The Rest, But, Being Trodden Upon And Crushed, Are Three; That Is, Burnet, Wild Thyme And Watermints. Therefore, You Are To Set Whole Alleys Of Them, To Have The Pleasure When You Walk Or Tread.

There Are Two Books Laid Before Us To Study, To Prevent Our Falling Into Error; First, The Volume Of The Scriptures, Which Reveal The Will Of God; Then The Volume Of The Creatures, Which Express His Power.

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

As Is The Garden Such Is The Gardener. A Man's Nature Runs Either To Herbs Or Weeds.

For No Man Can Forbid The Spark Nor Tell Whence It May Come.

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.

Nothing Doth So Much Keep Men Out Of The Church, And Drive Men Out Of The Church, As Breach Of Unity.

A Sudden Bold And Unexpected Question Doth Many Times Surprise A Man And Lay Him Open.

Defer Not Charities Till Death; For Certainly, If A Man Weigh It Rightly, He That Doth So Is Rather Liberal Of Another Man's Than Of His Own.

It Cannot Be That Axioms Established By Argumentation Should Avail For The Discovery Of New Works, Since The Subtlety Of Nature Is Greater Many Times Over Than The Subtlety Of Argument. But Axioms Duly And Orderly Formed From Particulars Easily Discover The Way To New Particulars, And Thus Render Sciences Active.

Praise Is The Reflection Of Virtue.

It Is A Good Point Of Cunning For A Man To Shape The Answer He Would Have In His Own Words And Propositions, For It Makes The Other Party Stick The Less.

Hurl Your Calumnies Boldly; Something Is Sure To Stick.

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.

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.

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

Science Is But An Image Of The Truth.

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

Books Will Speak Plain When Counselors Blanch.

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

Young People Are Fitter To Invent Than To Judge; Fitter For Execution Than For Counsel; And More Fit For New Projects Than For Settled Business.

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.

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

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

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

A Bachelor's Life Is A Fine Breakfast, A Flat Lunch, And A Miserable Dinner.

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight

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

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

A Man Finds Himself Seven Years Older The Day After His Marriage.

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

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

A Good Conscience Is A Continual Feast.

He That Cannot Possibly Mend His Own Case Will Do What He Can To Impair Another's.

Opportunity Makes A Thief.

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.

The Greatest Vicissitude Of Things Amongst Men, Is The Vicissitude Of Sects And Religions.

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.

Cleanness Of Body Was Ever Deemed To Proceed From A Due Reverence To God.

We Only Have Our Nervous System To Paint.

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight, That Does Not Show The Masques, And Mummeries, And Triumphs Of The World, Half So Stately And Daintily As Candle-lights. . . A Mixture Of A Lie Doth Ever Add Pleasure

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

...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.

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.

If Money Be Not Thy Servant, It Will Be Thy Master.

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.

Virtue Is Like Precious Odours,-most Fragrant When They Are Incensed Or Crushed.

Truth Is The Daughter Of Time, Not Of Authority.

They Are The Best Physicians, Who Being Great In Learning Most Incline To The Traditions Of Experience, Or Being Distinguished In Practice Do Not Reflect The Methods And Generalities Of Art.

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.

Neither The Naked Hand Nor The Understanding Left To Itself Can Effect Much. It Is By Instruments And Helps That The Work Is Done, Which Are As Much Wanted For The Understanding As For The Hand. And As The Instruments Of The Hand Either Give Motion Or Guide It, So The Instruments Of The Mind Supply Either Suggestions For The Understanding Or Cautions.

[science Is] The Labor And Handicraft Of The Mind.

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.

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.

All Bravery Stands Upon Comparisons.

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

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.

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

You Can't Be More Horrific Than Life Itself.

Painting Is The Pattern Of One's Own Nervous System Being Projected On Canvas.

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

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

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

Discretion Of Speech Is More Than Eloquence, And To Speak Agreeably To Him With Whom We Deal Is More Than To Speak In Good Words, Or In Good Order.

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.

Everybody Has His Own Interpretation Of A Painting He Sees.

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.

Children Sweeten Labours. But They Make Misfortune More Bitter. They Increase The Care Of Life. But They Mitigate The Remembrance Of Death. The Perpetuity Of Generation Is Common To Beasts. But Memory, Merit And Noble Works Are Proper To Men. And Surely A Man Shall See 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.

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.

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.

Money Is Like Muck, Not Good Unless Spread.

Change Your Attitude

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.

The Great Advantages Of Simulation And Dissimulation Are Three. First To Lay Asleep Opposition And To Surprise. For Where A Man's Intentions Are Published, It Is An Alarum To Call Up All That Are Against Them. The Second Is To Reserve A Man's Self A Fair Retreat: For If A Man Engage Himself, By A Manifest Declaration, He Must Go Through, Or Take A Fall. The Third Is, The Better To Discover The Mind Of Another. For To Him That Opens Himself, Men Will Hardly Show Themselves Adverse; But Will Fair Let Him Go On, And Turn Their Freedom Of Speech To Freedom Of Thought.

Liberty Of Speech Invites And Provokes Liberty To Be Used Again, And So Bringeth Much To A Man's Knowledge.

I Don't Believe Art Is Available; It's Rare And Curious And Should Be Completely Isolated; One Is More Aware Of Its Magic The More It Is Isolated.

Nature Is Often Hidden, Sometimes Overcome, Seldom Extinguished.

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.

Consistency Is The Foundation Of Virtue.

We Rise To Great Heights By A Winding Staircase Of Small Steps.

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.

Secrecy In Suits Goes A Great Way Towards Success.

Great Hypocrites Are The Real Atheists.

If You Can Talk About It, Why Paint It?

Trending Author

Alfred Whitney Griswold

Category