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.
Francis BaconWhen a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.
Francis BaconThe nature of things betrays itself more readily under the vexations of art than in its natural freedom.
Francis BaconIt 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.
Francis Bacon