I don't think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck.

In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.

For first of all we must prepare a Natural and Experimental History, sufficient and good; and this is the foundation of all; for we are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what nature does or may be made to do.

To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

It is idle to expect any great advancement in science from the superinducing and engrafting of new things upon old. We must begin anew from the very foundations, unless we would revolve for ever in a circle with mean and contemptible progress.

I think I tend to destroy the better paintings, or those that have been better to a certain extent. I try and take them further, and they lose all their qualities, and they lose everything. I think I would say that I destroy all the better paintings.