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In Philosophy, The Contemplations Of Man Do Either Penetrate Unto God, Or Are Circumferred To Nature, Or Are Reflected And Reverted Upon Himself. Out Of Which Several Inquiries There Do Arise Three Knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, And Human Philosophy Or Humanity. For All Things Are Marked And Stamped With This Triple Character Of The Power Of God, The Difference Of Nature And The Use Of Man.

-Francis Bacon

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In Philosophy, The Contemplations

Francis Bacon

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In Philosophy, The Contemplations Of Man Do Either Penetrate Unto God, Or Are Circumferred To Nature, Or Are Reflected And Reverted Upon Himself. Out Of Which Several Inquiries There Do Arise Three Knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, And Human Philosophy Or Humanity. For All Things Are Marked And Stamped With This Triple Character Of The Power Of God, The Difference Of Nature And The Use Of Man.

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There Is Superstition In Avoiding Superstition.

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

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

Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind.

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

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.

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

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

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

Time Is The Author Of Authors.

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

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

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.

Revenge Is A Kind Of Wild Justice.

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.

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

It Is Impossible To Love And To Be Wise.

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.

A Man Who Contemplates Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green.

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

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

First Therefore Let Us Seek The Dignity Of Knowledge In The Archetype Or First Platform, Which Is In The Attributes And Acts Of God, As Far As They Are Revealed To Man And May Be Observed With Sobriety; Wherein We May Not Seek It By The Name Of Learning; For All Learning Is Knowledge Acquired, And All Knowledge In God Is Original: And Therefore We Must Look For It By Another Name, That Of Wisdom Or Sapience, As The Scriptures Call It.

But The Images Of Men's Wits And Knowledges Remain In Books, Exempted From The Wrong Of Time, And Capable Of Perpetual Renovation.

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

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

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

Write Down The Thoughts Of The Moment. Those That Come Unsought For Are Commonly The Most Valuable.

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.

Books Must Follow Sciences, And Not Sciences Books.

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

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

People Prefer To Believe What They Want To Be True.

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

Travel, In The Younger Sort, Is A Part Of Education; In The Elder, A Part Of Experience.

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

Spouses Are Great Impediments To Great Enterprises.

It Was Well Said That Envy Keeps No Holidays.

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

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.

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

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

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

Consistency Is The Foundation Of Virtue.

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.

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

A Man That Studieth Revenge Keeps His Own Wounds Green.

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

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.

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.

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

In All Negotiations Of Difficulty, A Man May Not Look To Sow And Reap At Once; But Must Prepare Business, And So Ripen It By Degrees.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

I Believe In Deeply Ordered Chaos

That Things Are Changed, And That Nothing Really Perishes, And That The Sum Of Matter Remains Exactly The Same, Is Sufficiently Certain.

I Hold Every Man A Debtor To His Profession.

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.

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

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

Reading Maketh A Full Man.

If I Might Control The Literature Of The Household, I Would Guarantee The Well-being Of Church And State.

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

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It Is Nothing Won To Admit Men With An Open Door, And To Receive Them With A Shut And Reserved Countenance.

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

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.

Judges Ought Above All To Remember The Conclusion Of The Roman Twelve Tables :the Supreme Law Of All Is The Weal [weatlh/ Well-being] Of The People.

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

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

Speech Of Yourself Ought To Be Seldom And Well Chosen.

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

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.

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

By Indignities Men Come To Dignities.

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

You Can't Be More Horrific Than Life Itself.

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.

The Best Preservative To Keep The Mind In Health Is The Faithful Admonition Of A Friend.

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.

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

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 Christ Came Into The World, Peace Was Sung; And When He Went Out Of The World, Peace Was Bequeathed.

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.

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

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

Reading Maketh A Full Man; And Writing An Axact Man. And, Therefore, If A Man Write Little, He Need Have A Present Wit; And If He Read Little, He Need Have Much Cunning To Seem To Know Which He Doth Not.

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

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

Friends Are Thieves Of Time.

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

To Say That A Man Lieth, Is As Much To Say, As That He Is Brave Towards God, And A Coward Towards Men.

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

God's First Creature, Which Was Light.

The Human Understanding Is Unquiet; It Cannot Stop Or Rest, And Still Presses Onward, But In Vain. Therefore It Is That We Cannot Conceive Of Any End Or Limit To The World, But Always As Of Necessity It Occurs To Us That There Is Something Beyond... But He Is No Less An Unskilled And Shallow Philosopher Who Seeks Causes Of That Which Is Most General, Than He Who In Things Subordinate And Subaltern Omits To Do So

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.

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

Questions And Answers

The Human Understanding Is Of Its Own Nature Prone To Suppose The Existence Of More Order And Regularity In The World Than It Finds. And Though There Be Many Things In Nature Which Are Singular And Unmatched, Yet It Devises For Them Parallels And Conjugates And Relatives Which Do Not Exist. Hence The Fiction That All Celestial Bodies Move In Perfect Circles, Spirals And Dragons Being (except In Name) Utterly Rejected.

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

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.

Wonder Is The Seed Of Knowledge

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

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.

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.

Anger Is Certainly A Kind Of Baseness; As It Appears Well In The Weakness Of Those Subjects In Whom It Reigns; Children, Women, Old Folks, Sick Folks. Only Men Must Beware, That They Carry Their Anger Rather With Scorn, Than With Fear; So That They May Seem Rather To Be Above The Injury, Than Below It; Which Is A Thing Easily Done, If A Man Will Give Law To Himself In It.

For Many Parts Of Nature Can Neither Be Invented With Sufficient Subtlety, Nor Demonstrated With Sufficient Perspicuity, Nor Accommodated Unto Use With Sufficient Dexterity, Without The Aid And Intervening Of The Mathematics, Of Which Sort Are Perspective, Music, Astronomy, Cosmography, Architecture, Engineery, And Divers Others.

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.

If You Dissemble Sometimes Your Knowledge Of That You Are Thought To Know, You Shall Be Thought, Another Time, To Know That You Know Not.

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

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

Prosperity Discovers Vice, Adversity Discovers Virtue.

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

It's Not What We Eat But What We Digest That Makes Us Strong; Not What We Gain But What We Save That Makes Us Rich; Not What We Read But What We Remember That Makes Us Learned; And Not What We Profess But What We Practice That Gives Us Integrity.

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

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

The Best Armor Is To Keep Out Of Gunshot.

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

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

A Forbidden Writing Is Thought To Be A Certain Spark Of Truth, That Flies Up In The Face Of Them Who Seek To Tread It Out.

All Colours Will Agree In The Dark.

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.

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.

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

Opportunity Makes A Thief.

Nothing Is Terrible Except Fear Itself.

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

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.

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

Man Seeketh In Society Comfort, Use And Protection.

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

Boost Self Esteem

Boost Self Confidence

Of All Things Known To Mortals, Wine Is The Most Powerful And Effectual For Exciting And Inflaming The Passions Of Mankind, Being Common Fuel To Them All.

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.

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.

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

A Good Name Is Like Precious Ointment ; It Filleth All Round About, And Will Not Easily Away; For The Odors Of Ointments Are More Durable Than Those Of Flowers.

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.

Friendship Redoubleth Joys, And Cutteth Griefs In Half.

God Loveth The Clean.

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

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.

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

Much Bending Breaks The Bow; Much Unbending The Mind.

We Cannot Command Nature Except By Obeying Her.

Changing Environment

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

But I Account The Use That A Man Should Seek Of The Publishing Of His Own Writings Before His Death, To Be But An Untimely Anticipation Of That Which Is Proper To Follow A Man, And Not To Go Along With Him.

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

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.

Wounds Cannot Be Cured Without Searching.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Ill And Unfit Choice Of Words Wonderfully Obstructs The Understanding.

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

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

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

People Have Discovered That They Can Fool The Devil; But They Can't Fool The Neighbors.

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

They Are Happy Men Whose Natures Sort With Their Vocations.

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

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

Christian Inspirational

God Hangs The Greatest Weights Upon The Smallest Wires.

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

Inspirational Life

But By Far The Greatest Hindrance And Aberration Of The Human Understanding Proceeds From The Dullness, Incompetency, And Deceptions Of The Senses; In That Things Which Strike The Sense Outweigh Things Which Do Not Immediately Strike It, Though They Be More Important. Hence It Is That Speculation Commonly Ceases Where Sight Ceases; Insomuch That Of Things Invisible There Is Little Or No Observation.

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.

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

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

Vices Of The Time; Vices Of The Man.

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

Time Is The Greatest Innovator.

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

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

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

Fortune Is Like The Market, Where, Many Times, If You Can Stay A Little, The Price Will Fall.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It Is A Pleasure To Stand Upon The Shore, And To See Ships Tost Upon The Sea: A Pleasure To Stand In The Window Of A Castle, And To See A Battle And The Adventures Thereof Below: But No Pleasure Is Comparable To Standing Upon The Vantage Ground Of Truth . . . And To See The Errors, And Wanderings, And Mists, And Tempests, In The Vale Below.

Riches Are For Spending.

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

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

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.

There Is No Such Flatterer As Is A Man's Self.

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.

Rebellions Of The Belly Are The Worst.

Hurl Your Calumnies Boldly; Something Is Sure To Stick.

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