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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.

-Francis Bacon

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God Almighty First Planted

Francis Bacon

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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.

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

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.

To Know Truly Is To Know By Causes.

He That Toucheth Pitch Shall Be Defiled Therewith.

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

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

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.

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.

If The Hill Will Not Come To Mahomet, Mahomet Will Go To The Hill.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

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

Half Of Science Is Putting Forth The Right Questions.

Right Questions

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Begin Doing What You Want To Do Now. We Are Not Living In Eternity. We Have Only This Moment, Sparkling Like A Star In Our Hand - And Melting Like A Snowflake.

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

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

Truth Emerges More Readily From Error Than From Confusion.

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.

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

The Essential Form Of Knowledge... Is Nothing But A Representation Of Truth: For The Truth Of Being And The Truth Of Knowing Are One, Differing No More Than The Direct Beam And The Beam Reflected.

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

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

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

It Is A Sad Fate For A Man To Die Too Well Known To Everybody Else, And Still Unknown To Himself.

The Worst Solitute Is To Be Destitute Of True Friendship.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Spouses Are Great Impediments To Great Enterprises.

Time Is The Author Of Authors.

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.

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

Nobility Of Birth Commonly Abateth Industry.

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

Praise Is The Reflection Of Virtue.

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

I'm Working For Myself; What Else Have I Got To Work For? How Can You Work For An Audience? What Do You Imagine An Audience Would Want? I Have Got Nobody To Excite Except Myself, So I Am Always Surprised If Anyone Likes My Work Sometimes. I Suppose I'm Very Lucky, Of Course, To Be Able To Earn My Living By Something That Really Absorbs Me To Try To Do, If That Is What You Call Luck.

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

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.

Money Is Like Muck, Not Good Unless Spread.

Change Your Attitude

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

Prosperity Discovers Vice, Adversity Discovers Virtue.

Since My Logic Aims To Teach And Instruct The Understanding, Not That It May With The Slender Tendrils Of The Mind Snatch At And Lay Hold Of Abstract Notions (as The Common Logic Does), But That It May In Very Truth Dissect Nature, And Discover The Virtues And Actions Of Bodies, With Their Laws As Determined In Matter; So That This Science Flows Not Merely From The Nature Of The Mind, But Also From The Nature Of Things.

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

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

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

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

In Taking Revenge, A Man Is But Even With His Enemy; But In Passing It Over, He Is Superior.

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.

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

...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.

Mysteries Are Due To Secrecy.

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

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

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.

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.

Consistency Is The Foundation Of Virtue.

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 Monuments Of Wit Survive The Monuments Of Power.

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

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

He That Hath Knowledge Spareth His Words.

The Place Of Justice Is A Hallowed Place.

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

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

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.

I Paint For Myself. I Don't Know How To Do Anything Else, Anyway. Also I Have To Earn My Living, And Occupy Myself.

The Only Really Interesting Thing Is What Happens Between Two People In A Room.

Gardening Is The Purest Of Human Pleasures.

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

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.

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

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.

It Is True, That A Little Philosophy Inclineth Man’s Mind To Atheism; But Depth In Philosophy Bringeth Men’s Minds About To Religion. For While The Mind Of Man Looketh Upon Second Causes Scattered, It May Sometimes Rest In Them, And Go No Further; But When It Beholdeth The Chain Of Them, Confederate And Linked Together, It Must Needs Fly To Providence And Deity.

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

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.

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear.

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.

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.

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

States, As Great Engines, Move Slowly.

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.

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.

Art Is Man Added To Nature.

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

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

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

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

If A Man Will Begin With Certainties, He Shall End In Doubts, But If He Will Content To Begin With Doubts, He Shall End In Certainties.

Vices Of The Time; Vices Of The Man.

Fortune Makes Him Fool, Whom She Makes Her Darling.

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

If A Man's Wit Be Wandering, Let Him Study The Mathematics; For In Demonstrations, If His Wit Be Called Away Never So Little, He Must Begin Again.

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

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.

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

Always Let Losers Have Their Words.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

That Conceit, Elegantly Expressed By The Emperor Charles V., In His Instructions To The King, His Son, "that Fortune Hath Somewhat The Nature Of A Woman, That If She Be Too Much Wooed She Is The Farther Off.

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

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

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

Wonder Is The Seed Of Knowledge

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.

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

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

Houses Are Built To Live In, And Not To Look On: Therefore Let Use Be Preferred Before Uniformity.

Secrecy In Suits Goes A Great Way Towards Success.

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

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

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

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.

The Folly Of One Man Is The Fortune Of Another.

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

A Man Who Contemplates Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green.

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

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

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.

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

Velazquez Found The Perfect Balance Between The Ideal Illustration Which He Was Required To Produce, And The Overwhelming Emotion He Aroused In The Spectator.

Then Bless Thy Secret Growth, Nor Catch At Noise, But Thrive Unseen And Dumb; Keep Clean, Be As Fruit, Earn Life, And Watch, Till The White-wing'd Reapers Come.

In Charity There Is No Excess.

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?

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

The Best Armor Is To Keep Out Of Gunshot.

A Wise Man Will Make More Opportunities Than He Finds.

The Stage Is More Beholding To Love Than The Life Of Man. For As To The Stage, Love Is Ever Matter Of Comedies And Now And Then Of Tragedies; But In Life It Doth Much Mischief, Sometimes Like A Siren, Sometimes Like A Fury.

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

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

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice.

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

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

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

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.

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

Men Of Noble Birth Are Noted To Be Envious Towards New Men When They Rise. For The Distance Is Altered, And It Is Like A Deceit Of The Eye, That When Others Come On They Think Themselves Go Back.

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

There Is No Great Concurrence Between Learning And Wisdom.

For Behavior, Men Learn It, As They Take Diseases, One Of Another.

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

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

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.

It Would Be Unsound Fancy And Self-contradictory To Expect That Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done Can Be Done Except By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried.

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

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

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.

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

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

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."

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

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

The Doctrines Of Religion Are Resolved Into Carefulness; Carefulness Into Vigorousness; Vigorousness Into Guiltlessness; Guiltlessness Into Abstemiousness; Abstemiousness Into Cleanliness; Cleanliness Into Godliness.

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

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

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.

Deformed Persons Commonly Take Revenge On Nature.

I Had Rather Believe All The Fables In The Legend, And The Talmud, And The Alcoran, Then That This Universall Frame, Is Without A Minde. And Therefore, God Never Wrought Miracle, To Convince Atheisme, Because His Ordinary Works Convince It. It Is True, That A Little Philosophy Inclineth Mans Minde To Atheisme; But Depth In Philosophy, Bringeth Mens Mindes About To Religion.

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

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.

More Dangers Have Deceived Men Than Forced Them.

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

Princes Are Like Heavenly Bodies, Which Cause Good Or Evil Times, And Which Have Much Veneration, But No Rest.

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

The Root Of All Superstition Is That Men Observe When A Thing Hits, But Not When It Misses.

Hurl Your Calumnies Boldly; Something Is Sure To Stick.

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.

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

Nature Is Often Hidden, Sometimes Overcome, Seldom Extinguished.

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.

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

The Cord Breaketh At Last By The Weakest Pull.

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

Boost Self Esteem

Boost Self Confidence

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

Read Not To Contradict And Confute, Nor To Believe And Take For Granted... But To Weigh And Consider.

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