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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.

-Francis Bacon

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But This Is That

Francis Bacon

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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.

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

He That Hath Wife And Children Hath Given Hostages To Fortune, For They Are Impediments To Great Enterprises, Either Of Virtue Or Mischief. Certainly The Best Works And Of Greatest Merit For The Public Have Proceeded From The Unmarried Or Childless Men, Which Both In Affection And Means Have Married And Endowed The Public. He Was Reputed One Of The Wise Men That Made Answer To The Question, When A Man Should Marrya Young Man Not Yet, An Elder Man Not At All.

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.

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

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.

...to Invent Is To Discover That We Know Not, And Not To Recover Or Resummon That Which We Already Know

I Hold Every Man A Debtor To His Profession.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

There Is No Secrecy Comparable To Celerity.

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 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.

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."

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.'

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

...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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

A Lie Faces God And Shrinks From Man.

Studies Perfect Nature And Are Perfected Still By Experience.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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."

The Folly Of One Man Is The Fortune Of Another.

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

For It Is Not Possible To Join Serpentine Wisdom With Columbine Innocence, Except Men Know Exactly All The Conditions Of The Serpent: His Baseness And Going Upon His Belly, His Volubility And Lubricity, His Envy And Sting, And The Rest; That Is, All Forms And Natures Of Evil: For Without This, Virtue Lieth Open And Unfenced.

A Picture Should Be A Re-creation Of An Event Rather Than An Illustration Of An Object; But There Is No Tension In The Picture Unless There Is A Struggle With The Object.

Friendship Redoubleth Joys, And Cutteth Griefs In Half.

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 Was Never Miracle Wrought By God To Convert An Atheist, Because The Light Of Nature Might Have Led Him To Confess A God.

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

Secrecy In Suits Goes A Great Way Towards Success.

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

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

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

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

Generally He Perceived In Men Of Devout Simplicity This Opinion: That The Secrets Of Nature Were The Secrets Of God, Part Of That Glory Into Which Man Is Not To Press Too Boldly.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

There Is Little Friendship In The World, And Least Of All Between Equals.

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.

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.

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.

They Are Happy Men Whose Natures Sort With Their Vocations.

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.

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.

Cure The Disease And Kill The Patient.

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

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.

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

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.

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

If You Can Talk About It, Why Paint It?

I Like, You May Say, The Glitter And Colour That Comes From The Mouth, And I've Always Hoped In A Sense To Be Able To Paint The Mouth Like Monet Painted A Sunset.

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.

Deformed Persons Commonly Take Revenge On Nature.

To Spend Too Much Time In Studies Is Sloth.

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

Crafty Men Condemn Studies; Simple Men Admire Them; And Wise Men Use Them: For They Teach Not Their Own Use: But That Is A Wisdom Without Them, And Above Them, Won By Observation.

Spouses Are Great Impediments To Great Enterprises.

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

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

Praise Is The Reflection Of Virtue.

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.

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

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.

God's First Creature, Which Was Light.

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.

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

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

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

For The Chain Of Causes Cannot By Any Force Be Loosed Or Broken, Nor Can Nature Be Commanded Except By Being Obeyed.

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight

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.

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.

It Is Natural To Die As To Be Born.

The Wonder Of A Single Snowflake Outweighs The Wisdom Of A Million Meteorologists.

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

The Mold Of Our Fortunes Is In Our Own Hands.

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.

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.

I Should Have Been, I Don't Know, A Con-man, A Robber Or A Prostitute. But It Was Vanity That Made Me Choose Painting, Vanity And Chance.

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

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

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

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.

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

Opportunity Makes A Thief.

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

Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

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

There Is No Excellent Beauty That Hath Not Some Strangeness In The Proportion.

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.

Nothing Is Pleasant That Is Not Spiced With Variety.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

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

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

By Indignities Men Come To Dignities.

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

People Prefer To Believe What They Want To Be True.

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

Religion Brought Forth Riches, And The Daughter Devoured The Mother.

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

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.

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

The Errors Of Young Men Are The Ruin Of Business, But The Errors Of Aged Men Amount To This, That More Might Have Been Done, Or Sooner.

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.'

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

Every Person Born In The Usa Is Endowed With Life, Liberty, And A Substantial Share Of The National Debt.

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.

Knowledge Hath In It Somewhat Of The Serpent, And Therefore Where It Entereth Into A Man It Makes Him Swell.

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.

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

Beauty Itself Is But The Sensible Image Of The Infinite.

Men Leave Their Riches Either To Their Kindred Or Their Friends, And Moderate Portions Prosper Best In Both.

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

All Good Moral Philosophy Is ... But The Handmaid To Religion.

Half Of Science Is Putting Forth The Right Questions.

Right Questions

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.

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

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.

Vain-glorious Men Are The Scorn Of The Wise, The Admiration Of Fools, The Idols Of Paradise, And The Slaves Of Their Own Vaunts.

To Be Free Minded And Cheerfully Disposed At Hours Of Meat And Sleep And Of Exercise Is One Of The Best Precepts Of Long Lasting.

Gardening Is The Purest Of Human Pleasures.

A Wise Man Will Make More Opportunities Than He Finds.

He That Hath Knowledge Spareth His Words.

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

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

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.

A Man Were Better Relate Himself To A Statue Or Picture Than To Suffer His Thoughts To Pass In Smother.

Money Is A Good Servant, A Dangerous Master.

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

Truth May Perhaps Come To The Price Of A Pearl, That Showeth Best By Day; But It Will Not Rise To The Price Of A Diamond Or Carbuncle, That Showeth Best In Varied Lights. A Mixture Of A Lie Doth Ever Add Pleasure. Doth Any Man Doubt That, If There Were Taken Out Of Men's Minds Vain Opinions, Flattering Hopes, False Valuations, Imaginations As One Would, And The Like, But It Would Leave The Minds Of A Number Of Men Poor Shrunken Things, Full Of Melancholy And Indisposition, And Unpleasing To Themselves?

You Can't Be More Horrific Than Life Itself.

A Good Conscience Is A Continual Feast.

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.

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.

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

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

But We May Go Further, And Affirm Most Truly, That It Is A Mere And Miserable Solitude To Want True Friends; Without Which The World Is But A Wilderness.

Judges Ought To Be More Learned, Than Witty, More Reverend, Than Plausible, And More Advised, Than Confident. Above All Things, Integrity Is Their Portion And Proper Virtue.

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.

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

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

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

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

O Life! An Age To The Miserable, A Moment To The Happy.

I Have Often Thought Upon Death, And I Find It The Least Of All Evils.

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

The Cord Breaketh At Last By The Weakest Pull.

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.

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

Great Boldness Is Seldom Without Some Absurdity.

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.

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.

The Voice Of The People Has About It Something Divine: For How Otherwise Can So Many Heads Agree Together As One?

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

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

Art Is Man Added To Nature.

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.

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.

The Man Who Fears No Truths Has Nothing To Fear From Lies.

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.

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

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

The Human Understanding Of Its Own Nature Is Prone To Suppose The Existence Of More Order And Regularity In The World Than It Finds.

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

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

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.

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