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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.

-Francis Bacon

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Nevertheless If Any Skillful

Francis Bacon

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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.

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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.

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.

Some Men Covet Knowledge Out Of A Natural Curiosity And Inquisitive Temper; Some To Entertain The Mind With Variety And Delight; Some For Ornament And Reputation; Some For Victory And Contention; Many For Lucre And A Livelihood; And But Few For Employing The Divine Gift Of Reason To The Use And Benefit Of Mankind.

A Little Science Estranges A Man From God; A Lot Of Science Brings Him Back.

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

There Is Superstition In Avoiding Superstition.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Upon A Given Body To Generate And Superinduce A New Nature Or New Natures Is The Work And Aim Of Human Power. To Discover The Form Of A Given Nature, Or Its True Difference, Or Its Causal Nature, Or Fount Of Its Emanation... This Is The Work And Aim Of Human Knowledge.

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

Vices Of The Time; Vices Of The Man.

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

There Is No Secrecy Comparable To Celerity.

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

There Is Nothing Makes A Man Suspect Much, More Than To Know Little, And Therefore Men Should Remedy Suspicion By Procuring To Know More, And Not Keep Their Suspicions In Smother.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Silence Is The Sleep That Nourishes Wisdom.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Wise Man Will Make More Opportunities Than He Finds.

Philosophy When Superficially Studied, Excites Doubt, When Thoroughly Explored, It Dispels It.

Overcoming Doubt

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

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight, That Does Not Show The Masques, And Mummeries, And Triumphs Of The World, Half So Stately And Daintily As Candle-lights. . . A Mixture Of A Lie Doth Ever Add Pleasure

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

He That Toucheth Pitch Shall Be Defiled Therewith.

Discretion In Speech Is More Than Eloquence.

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.

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.

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

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

When I Paint I Am Ageless, I Just Have The Pleasure Or The Difficulty Of Painting.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

He That Hath Knowledge Spareth His Words.

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?

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.

Acorns Were Good Until Bread Was Found.

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.

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.

The Greatest Vicissitude Of Things Amongst Men, Is The Vicissitude Of Sects And Religions.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

People Prefer To Believe What They Want To Be True.

The Human Understanding Is Moved By Those Things Most Which Strike And Enter The Mind Simultaneously And Suddenly, And So Fill The Imagination; And Then It Feigns And Supposes All Other Things To Be Somehow, Though It Cannot See How, Similar To Those Few Things By Which It Is Surrounded.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Much Bending Breaks The Bow; Much Unbending The Mind.

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.

I've Had Photographs Taken For Portraits Because I Very Much Prefer Working From The Photographs Than From Models... I Couldn't Attempt To Do A Portrait From Photographs Of Somebody I Didn't Know.

All Bravery Stands Upon Comparisons.

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

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

It's Always Hopeless To Talk About Painting - One Never Does Anything But Talk Around It.

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

I Foresee It And Yet I Hardly Ever Carry It Out As I Foresee It. It Transforms Itself By The Actual Paint. I Don't In Fact Know Very Often What The Paint Will Do, And It Does Many Things Which Are Very Much Better Than I Could Make It Do.

Man Prefers To Believe What He Prefers To Be True.

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.

Of All Virtues And Dignities Of The Mind, Goodness Is The Greatest

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

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

Judges Must Beware Of Hard Constructions And Strained Inferences, For There Is No Worse Torture Than That Of Laws.

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

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.

I Work For Posterity, These Things Requiring Ages For Their Accomplishment.

In Charity There Is No Excess.

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

Mysteries Are Due To Secrecy.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

All Will Come Out In The Washing.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

If You Can Talk About It, Why Paint It?

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

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.

The Mold Of Our Fortunes Is In Our Own Hands.

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

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

It Was Prettily Devised Of Aesop, The Fly Sat On The Axle Tree Of The Chariot Wheel And Said, What Dust Do I Raise!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nothing Is Terrible Except Fear Itself.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

A Man Who Contemplates Revenge Keeps His Wounds Green.

Fortune Makes Him Fool, Whom She Makes Her Darling.

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

Great Riches Have Sold More Men Than They Have Bought.

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.

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.

In Things That Are Tender And Unpleasing, It Is Good To Break The Ice By Some One Whose Words Are Of Less Weight, And To Reserve The More Weighty Voice To Come In As By Chance.

Deformed Persons Commonly Take Revenge On Nature.

Nothing Is To Be Feared But Fear.

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.

Nothing Is Pleasant That Is Not Spiced With Variety.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

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

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.

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.

The Place Of Justice Is A Hallowed Place.

Come Home To Men's Business And Bosoms.

Believe Not Much Them That Seem To Despise Riches, For They Despise Them That Despair Of Them.

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

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

The Worst Men Often Give The Best Advice.

Truth Is A Naked And Open Daylight

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.

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

Inspirational Life

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

...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.

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.

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

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.

We Are Much Beholden To Machiavel And Others, That Write What Men Do, And Not What They Ought To Do.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Half Of Science Is Putting Forth The Right Questions.

Right Questions

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.

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.

First The Amendment Of Their Own Minds. For The Removal Of The Impediments Of The Mind Will Sooner Clear The Passages Of Fortune Than The Obtaining Fortune Will Remove The Impediments Of The Mind.

You Can't Be More Horrific Than Life Itself.

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

For No Man Can Forbid The Spark Nor Tell Whence It May Come.

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.

Hurl Your Calumnies Boldly; Something Is Sure To Stick.

If Vices Were Profitable, The Virtuous Man Would Be The Sinner.

Wise Sayings Are Not Only For Ornament, But For Action And Business, Having A Point Or Edge, Whereby Knots In Business Are Pierced And Discovered.

The 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.

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.

Books Must Follow Sciences, And Not Sciences Books.

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.

Art Is Man Added To Nature.

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

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.

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

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

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