Francis Bacon Quotes
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States as great engines move slowly.
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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.
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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.
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A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.
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Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
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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.
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The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.
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The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.
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It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion, as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.
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It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs.
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Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.
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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.
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Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
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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.
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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.
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I don't think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck.
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Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.
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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.
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As is the garden such is the gardener. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds.
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I believe in deeply ordered chaos.
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The universe must not be narrowed down to the limit of our understanding, but our understanding must be stretched and enlarged to take in the image of the universe as it is discovered.
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People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.
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Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.
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If I might control the literature of the household, I would guarantee the well-being of Church and State.