Francis Bacon Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.
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They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art.
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Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
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The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
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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 marry. A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.
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What then remains but that we still should cry Not to be born, or, being born, to die?
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Friends are thieves of time.
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Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.
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There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.
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There are many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances.
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Great changes are easier than small ones.
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None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.
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If there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire.
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Come home to men's business and bosoms.
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Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
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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.
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Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts.
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Nor is mine a trumpet which summons and excites men to cut each other to pieces with mutual contradictions, or to quarrel and fight with one another; but rather to make peace between themselves, and turning with united forces against the Nature of Things.
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The only hope [of science] ... is in genuine induction.
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The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
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I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision.