There is nothing more certain in nature than that it is impossible for any body to be utterly annihilated.

The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes the middle course, it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

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.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Some paint comes across directly onto the nervous system and other paint tells you the story in a long diatribe through the brain.

The noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds where those of their bodies have failed.