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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.

-Francis Bacon

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I Use All Sorts

Francis Bacon

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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.

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More From Francis Bacon

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

Great Art Is Always A Way Of Concentrating, Reinventing What Is Called Fact, What We Know Of Our Existence- A Reconcentration… Tearing Away The Veils, The Attitudes People Acquire Of Their Time And Earlier Time. Really Good Artists Tear Down Those Veils

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

A Prudent Question Is One-half Of Wisdom.

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

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

Observation And Experiment For Gathering Material, Induction And Deduction For Elaborating It: These Are Are Only Good Intellectual Tools.

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

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

Children Sweeten Labours, But They Make Misfortunes More Bitter.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

There Is As Much Difference Between The Counsel That A Friend Giveth, And That A Man Giveth Himself, As There Is Between The Counsel Of A Friend And Of A Flatterer. For There Is No Such Flatterer As Is A Man's Self.

Jesus Would Have Been One Of The Best Photographers That Ever Existed. He Was Always Looking At The Beauty Of People Souls. In Fact Jesus Was Constantly Making Pictures Of God In People's Life By Looking At Their Souls And Exposing Them To His Light.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Science Is But An Image Of The Truth.

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.

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

Whatever You Can, Count.

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.

All Bravery Stands Upon Comparisons.

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.

Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

A Man Who Contemplates Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Spouses Are Great Impediments To Great Enterprises.

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?

But Men Must Know, That In This Theatre Of Man's Life It Is Reserved Only For God And Angels To Be Lookers On.

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.

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

Criminal Justice

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 Is To Be Feared But Fear.

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.

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

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.

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

The Surest Way To Prevent Seditions...is To Take Away The Matter Of Them.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

You Cannot Teach A Child To Take Care Of Himself Unless You Will Let Him Try To Take Care Of Himself. He Will Make Mistakes And Out Of These Mistakes Will Come His Wisdom.

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

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.'

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

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.

When A Doubt Is Once Received, Men Labour Rather How To Keep It A Doubt Still, Than How To Solve It; And Accordingly Bend Their Wits.

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.

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.

Salomon Saith, There Is No New Thing Upon The Earth. So That As Plato Had An Imagination, That All Knowledge Was But Remembrance; So Salomon Giveth His Sentence, That All Novelty Is But Oblivion.

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

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.'

It Is Madness And A Contradiction To Expect That Things Which Were Never Yet Performed Should Be Effected, Except By Means Hitherto Untried.

As You Work, The Mood Grows On You. There Are Certain Images Which Suddenly Get Hold Of Me And I Really Want To Do Them. But It's True To Say That The Excitement And Possibilities Are In The Working And Obviously Can Only Come In The Working.

When A Man Laughs At His Troubles He Loses A Great Many Friends. They Never Forgive The Loss Of Their Prerogative.

Wonder Is The Seed Of Knowledge

If I Go To The National Gallery And I Look At One Of The Great Paintings That Excite Me There, It's Not So Much The Painting That Excites Me As That The Painting Unlocks All Kinds Of Valves Of Sensation Within Me Which Return Me To Life More Violently.

Perils Commonly Ask To Be Paid In Pleasures.

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.

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

Money Is Like Muck, Not Good Unless Spread.

Change Your Attitude

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.

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

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.

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

I Want A Very Ordered Image, But I Want It To Come About By Chance.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 Emerges More Readily From Error Than From Confusion.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

To Spend Too Much Time In Studies Is Sloth.

My Painting Is Not Violent, It's Life That Is Violent. Even Within The Most Beautiful Landscape, In The Trees, Under The Leaves, The Insects Are Eating Each Other; Violence Is A Part Of Life. We Are Born With A Scream; We Come Into Life With A Scream And Maybe Love Is A Mosquito Net Between The Fear Of Living And The Fear Of Death.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Who Questions Much, Shall Learn Much, And Retain Much.

Questions And Answers

A Cat Will Never Drown If She Sees The Shore.

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.

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.

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

Friendship Redoubleth Joys, And Cutteth Griefs In Half.

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.

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

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

Great Boldness Is Seldom Without Some Absurdity.

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.

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

Look To Make Your Course Regular, That Men May Know Beforehand What They May Expect.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Wives Are Young Men's Mistresses, Companions For Middle Age, And Old Men's Nurses.

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.

For Knowledge, Too, Is Itself Power.

God Hangs The Greatest Weights Upon The Smallest Wires.

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

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

Who Then To Frail Mortality Shall Trust But Limns The Water, Or But Writes In Dust.

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

Nothing Is Pleasant That Is Not Spiced With Variety.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

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

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.

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

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

Man, Being The Servant And Interpreter Of Nature, Can Do And Understand So Much And So Much Only As He Has Observed In Fact Or Thought Of The Course Of Nature; Beyond This He Neither Knows Anything Nor Can Do Anything.

Man Prefers To Believe What He Prefers To Be True.

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

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.

We Cannot Command Nature Except By Obeying Her.

Changing Environment

God Loveth The Clean.

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

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

Man Seeketh In Society Comfort, Use And Protection.

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.

Speech Of Yourself Ought To Be Seldom And Well Chosen.

Without Friends The World Is But A Wilderness.

Images Also Help Me Find And Realise Ideas. I Look At Hundreds Of Very Different, Contrasting Images And I Pinch Details From Them, Rather Like People Who Eat From Other People`s Plates.

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.

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

I Don't Think People Are Born Artists; I Think It Comes From A Mixture Of Your Surroundings, The People You Meet, And Luck.

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

Travel, In The Younger Sort, Is A Part Of Education; In The Elder, A Part Of Experience. He That Travelleth Into A Country Before He Hath Some Entrance Into The Language, Goeth To School, And Not To Travel.

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

Painting Gave Meaning To My Life Which Without It Would Not Have Had

I Feel Ever So Strongly That An Artist Must Be Nourished By His Passions And His Despairs. These Things Alter An Artist Whether For The Good Or The Better Or The Worse. It Must Alter Him. The Feelings Of Desperation And Unhappiness Are More Useful To An Artist Than The Feeling Of Contentment, Because Desperation And Unhappiness Stretch Your Whole Sensibility.

Out Of Monuments, Names, Words Proverbs ...and The Like, We Do Save And Recover Somewhat From The Deluge Of Time.

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

The Desire Of Power In Excess Caused The Angels To Fall; The Desire Of Knowledge In Excess Caused Man To Fall: But In Charity There Is No Excess; Neither Can Angel Nor Man Come In Danger By It.

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

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.

Custom Is The Principle Magistrate Of Man's Life.

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

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

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

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

To Know Truly Is To Know By Causes.

This Is Certain, That A Man That Studieth Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green, Which Otherwise Would Heal And Do Well.

The Person Is A Poor Judge Who By An Action Can Be Disgraced More In Failing Than They Can Be Honored In Succeeding.

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

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.

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."

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

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

Good Fame Is Like Fire; When You Have Kindled You May Easily Preserve It; But If You Extinguish It, You Will Not Easily Kindle It Again.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Doctor Johnson Said, That In Sickness There Were Three Things That Were Material; The Physician, The Disease, And The Patient: And If Any Two Of These Joined, Then They Get The Victory; For, Ne Hercules Quidem Contra Duos [not Even Hercules Himself Is A Match For Two]. If The Physician And The Patient Join, Then Down Goes The Disease; For Then The Patient Recovers: If The Physician And The Disease Join, That Is A Strong Disease; And The Physician Mistaking The Cure, Then Down Goes The Patient: If The Patient And The Disease Join, Then Down Goes The Physician; For He Is Discredited.

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

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

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