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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.

-Francis Bacon

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But The Idols Of

Francis Bacon

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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.

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Philosophers Make Imaginary Laws For Imaginary Commonwealths, And Their Discourses Are As The Stars, Which Give Little Light Because They Are So High.

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

Perils Commonly Ask To Be Paid In Pleasures.

Again There Is Another Great And Powerful Cause Why The Sciences Have Made But Little Progress; Which Is This. It Is Not Possible To Run A Course Aright When The Goal Itself Has Not Been Rightly Placed.

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

The Worst Men Often Give The Best Advice.

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

The Mold Of Our Fortunes Is In Our Own Hands.

I Confess That I Have As Vast Contemplative Ends, As I Have Moderate Civil Ends: For I Have Taken All Knowledge To Be My Province.

The Folly Of One Man Is The Fortune Of Another.

My Praise Shall Be Dedicated To The Mind Itself. The Mind Is The Man, And The Knowledge Is The Mind. A Man Is But What He Knoweth. The Mind Is But An Accident To Knowledge, For Knowledge Is The Double Of That Which Is.

Nature, To Be Commanded, Must Be Obeyed.

For What A Man Would Like To Be True, That He More Readily Believes.

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.

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

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

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.

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

In All Superstition Wise Men Follow Fools.

Let The Mind Be Enlarged... To The Grandeur Of The Mysteries, And Not The Mysteries Contracted To The Narrowness Of The Mind

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.

A Man Who Contemplates Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green.

He That Plots To Be The Only Figure Among Ciphers [zeros], Is The Decay Of The Whole Age.

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

Boldness Is A Child Of Ignorance

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

Disciples Do Owe Their Masters Only A Temporary Belief, And A Suspension Of Their Own Judgment Till They Be Fully Instructed.

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.

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

All Of Our Actions Take Their Hue From The Complexion Of The Heart, As Landscapes Their Variety From Light.

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

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

Christian Inspirational

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.

Truth Is So Hard To Tell, It Sometimes Needs Fiction To Make It Plausible.

A Man That Is Young In Years May Be Old In Hours If He Have Lost No Time.

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

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

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 Scripture Saith, The Fool Hath Said In His Heart, There Is No God; It Is Not Said, The Fool Hath Thought In His Heart; So As He Rather Saith It, By Rote To Himself, As That He Would Have, Than That He Can Thoroughly Believe It, Or Be Persuaded Of It....it Appeareth In Nothing More, That Atheism Is Rather In The Lip, Than In The Heart Of Man.

Books Will Speak Plain When Counselors Blanch.

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.

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

Speech Of Yourself Ought To Be Seldom And Well Chosen.

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

If My People Look As If They're In A Dreadful Fix, It's Because I Can't Get Them Out Of A Technical Dilemma.

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

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.

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.

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

...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.

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

It's Not What We Profess But What We Practice That Gives Us Integrity.

Libraries Are As The Shrine Where All The Relics Of The Ancient Saints, Full Of True Virtue, And That Without Delusion Or Imposture, Are Preserved And Reposed.

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

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

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.

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

There Is No Great Concurrence Between Learning And Wisdom.

Cure The Disease And Kill The Patient.

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

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.

No Artist Knows In His Own Lifetime Whether What He Does Will Be The Slightest Good, Because It Takes At Least Seventy-five To A Hundred Years Before The Thing Begins To Sort Itself Out.

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

Nothing Doth More Hurt In A State Than That Cunning Men Pass For Wise.

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.

There Is No Greater Wisdom Than Well To Time The Beginnings And Onsets Of Things.

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.

One Of The Seven [wise Men Of Greece] Was Wont To Say: That Laws Were Like Cobwebs, Where The Small Flies Are Caught And The Great Break Through.

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

Inspirational Life

There Was A Young Man In Rome That Was Very Like Augustus Caesar; Augustus Took Knowledge Of It And Sent For The Man, And Asked Him "was Your Mother Never At Rome?" He Answered "no Sir; But My Father Was."

That Which Above All Other Yields The Sweetest Smell In The Air Is The Violet.

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

Some Artists Leave Remarkable Things Which, A 100 Years Later, Don't Work At All. I Have Left My Mark; My Work Is Hung In Museums, But Maybe One Day The Tate Gallery Or The Other Museums Will Banish Me To The Cellar... You Never Know.

Never Any Knowledge Was Delivered In The Same Order It Was Invented.

It Was Well Said That Envy Keeps No Holidays.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Believe In Deeply Ordered Chaos

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.

Another Error Is An Impatience Of Doubt And Haste To Assertion Without Due And Mature Suspension Of Judgment. For The Two Ways Of Contemplation Are Not Unlike The Two Ways Of Action Commonly Spoken Of By The Ancients; The One Plain And Smooth In The Beginning, And In The End Impassable; The Other Rough And Troublesome In The Entrance, But After A While Fair And Even. So It Is In Contemplation; If A Man Will Begin With Certainties, He Shall End In Doubts; But If He Will Be Content To Begin With Doubts, He Shall End In Certainties.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

People Prefer To Believe What They Want To Be True.

Silence Is The Virtue Of Fools.

Of All The Things In Nature, The Formation And Endowment Of Man Was Singled Out By The Ancients.

Opportunity Makes A Thief.

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.

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.

Another Argument Of Hope May Be Drawn From This-that Some Of The Inventions Already Known Are Such As Before They Were Discovered It Could Hardly Have Entered Any Man's Head To Think Of; They Would Have Been Simply Set Aside As Impossible. For In Conjecturing What May Be Men Set Before Them The Example Of What Has Been, And Divine Of The New With An Imagination Preoccupied And Colored By The Old; Which Way Of Forming Opinions Is Very Fallacious, For Streams That Are Drawn From The Springheads Of Nature Do Not Always Run In The Old Channels.

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.

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

I Hold Every Man A Debtor To His Profession; From The Which As Men Of Course Do Seek To Receive Countenance And Profit, So Ought They Of Duty To Endeavor Themselves, By Way Of Amends, To Be A Help And Ornament Thereunto.

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

Things Alter For The Worse Spontaneously, If They Be Not Altered For The Better Designedly.

Pictures And Shapes Are But Secondary Objects And Please Or Displease Only In The Memory.

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

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.

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.

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.

Vices Of The Time; Vices Of The Man.

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.

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.

Whence We See Spiders, Flies, Or Ants Entombed And Preserved Forever In Amber, A More Than Royal Tomb.

Secrecy In Suits Goes A Great Way Towards Success.

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

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

Rebellions Of The Belly Are The Worst.

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.

The Human Understanding, From Its Peculiar Nature, Easily Supposes A Greater Degree Of Order And Equality In Things Than It Really Finds.

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

A Much Talking Judge Is An Ill-tuned Cymbal.

States, As Great Engines, Move Slowly.

Life Is A Marshmallow, Easy To Chew But Hard To Swallow.

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.

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.

Learning Teaches How To Carry Things In Suspense, Without Prejudice, Till You Resolve It.

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

Always Let Losers Have Their Words.

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

Pyrrhus, When His Friends Congratulated To Him His Victory Over The Romans Under Fabricius, But With Great Slaughter Of His Own Side, Said To Them, "yes; But If We Have Such Another Victory, We Are Undone."

Time Is The Author Of Authors.

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

Men On Their Side Must Force Themselves For A While To Lay Their Notions By And Begin To Familiarize Themselves With Facts.

Riches Are For Spending.

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

Money Is A Great Servant But A Bad Master.

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

... Wife And Children Are A Kind Of Discipline Of Humanity.

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

Whatever You Can, Count.

States Are Great Engines Moving Slowly.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

A Lie Faces God And Shrinks From Man.

Nothing Is More Pleasant To The Eye Than Green Grass Kept Finely Shorn.

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

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.

All Authority Must Be Out Of A Man's Self, Turned . . . Either Upon An Art, Or Upon A Man.

The Partitions Of Knowledge Are Not Like Several Lines That Meet In One Angle, And So Touch Not In A Point; But Are Like Branches Of A Tree, That Meet In A Stem, Which Hath A Dimension And Quantity Of Entireness And Continuance, Before It Come To Discontinue And Break Itself Into Arms And Boughs.

Nuptial Love Makes Mankind; Friendly Love Perfects It; But Wanton Love Corrupts And Debases It.

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

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.

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

Truth Is The Daughter Of Time, Not Of Authority.

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

Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

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

The First Question Concerning The Celestial Bodies Is Whether There Be A System, That Is Whether The World Or Universe Compose Together One Globe, With A Center, Or Whether The Particular Globes Of Earth And Stars Be Scattered Dispersedly, Each On Its Own Roots, Without Any System Or Common Center.

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

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

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

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear.

Believing That I Was Born For The Service Of Mankind, And Regarding The Care Of The Commonwealth As A Kind Of Common Property Which, Like The Air And The Water, Belongs To Everybody, I Set Myself To Consider In What Way Mankind Might Be Best Served, And What Service I Was Myself Best Fitted By Nature To Perform.

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

Seek Not Proud Riches, But Such As Thou Mayest Get Justly, Use Soberly, Distribute Cheerfully, And Leave Contentedly.

...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.

God Hangs The Greatest Weights Upon The Smallest Wires.

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

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice.

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.

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.

Again Men Have Been Kept Back As By A Kind Of Enchantment From Progress In Science By Reverence For Antiquity, By The Authority Of Men Counted Great In Philosophy, And Then By General Consent.

Praise From The Common People Is Generally False, And Rather Follows The Vain Than The Virtuous.

Very Few People Have A Natural Feeling For Painting, And So, Of Course, They Naturally Think That Painting Is An Expression Of The Artist's Mood. But It Rarely Is. Very Often He May Be In Greatest Despair And Be Painting His Happiest Paintings.

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Studies Perfect Nature And Are Perfected Still By Experience.

Mark What A Generosity And Courage (a Dog) Will Put On When He Finds Himself Maintained By A Man, Who To Him Is Instead Of A God

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.

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."

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.

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

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.

If There Be Fuel Prepared, It Is Hard To Tell Whence The Spark Shall Come That Shall Set It On Fire.

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

Spouses Are Great Impediments To Great Enterprises.

Even Within The Most Beautiful Landscape, In The Trees, Under The Leaves The Insects Are Eating Each Other; Violence Is A Part Of Life.

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.

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

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

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.

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