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.
Francis BaconThe 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.
Francis BaconMen 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.
Francis BaconBut this is that which will dignify and exalt knowledge: if contemplation and action be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than they have been: a conjunction like unto that of the highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action.
Francis BaconGod Almighty first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks. And a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.
Francis BaconMan, 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.
Francis BaconI 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.
Francis BaconThe errors of young men are the ruin of business, but the errors of aged men amount to this, that more might have been done, or sooner.
Francis BaconOne of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.
Francis BaconBrutes by their natural instinct have produced many discoveries, whereas men by discussion and the conclusions of reason have given birth to few or none.
Francis BaconThe study of nature with a view to works is engaged in by the mechanic, the mathematician, the physician, the alchemist, and the magician; but by all as things now are with slight endeavour and scanty success.
Francis BaconAge 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.
Francis BaconAs 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.
Francis BaconOut of monuments, names, words proverbs ...and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.
Francis BaconIf a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
Francis BaconGenerally he perceived in men of devout simplicity this opinion: that the secrets of nature were the secrets of God, part of that glory into which man is not to press too boldly.
Francis BaconAn illustrational form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas a non-illustrational form works first upon sensation and then slowly leaks back into the fact.
Francis BaconWhence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.
Francis BaconThe divisions of science are not like different lines that meet in one angle, but rather like the branches of trees that join in one trunk.
Francis BaconI had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
Francis BaconBelieve not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them.
Francis BaconThings alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Francis BaconFor 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.
Francis BaconFriendship maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts.
Francis BaconThe voice of the people has about it something divine: for how otherwise can so many heads agree together as one?
Francis BaconNevertheless 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 BaconBecause the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.
Francis BaconNor do apophthegms only serve for ornament and delight, but also for action and civil use, as being the edge-tools of speech which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs: for occasions have their revolutions, and what has once been advantageously used may be so again, either as an old thing or a new one.
Francis Bacon