Francis Bacon Quotes
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The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this - that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.
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Deformed persons commonly take revenge on nature.
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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.
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The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
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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."
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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.
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I want a very ordered image, but I want it to come about by chance.
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Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.
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[Science is] the labor and handicraft of the mind.
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The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God.
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Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.
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I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.
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Revenge is a kind of wild justice.
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The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
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Aristotle… a mere bond-servant to his logic, thereby rendering it contentious and well nigh useless.
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For friends... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble.
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Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas.
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Without friends the world is but a wilderness.
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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.
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It is impossible to love and to be wise.
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It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.
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Intermingle...jest with earnest.
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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.
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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 anger. Anger must be limited and confined, both in race and in time.