It's such an extraordinary supple medium that you never do quite know what paint will do.
Francis BaconHe that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of a whole age.
Francis BaconThe way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a meeting, or knot, of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together : so are there a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.
Francis BaconI've had photographs taken for portraits because I very much prefer working from the photographs than from models... I couldn't attempt to do a portrait from photographs of somebody I didn't know.
Francis BaconGenerally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men, is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely.
Francis BaconBut we are not dedicating or building any Capitol or Pyramid to human Pride, but found a holy temple in the human Intellect, on the model of the Universe... For whatever is worthy of Existence is worthy of Knowledge-which is the Image (or Echo) of Existence.
Francis BaconThe subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
Francis BaconYou want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you make by accident. In painting, you have to know what you do, not how, when you do it.
Francis BaconFortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
Francis BaconTo seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: 'Be angry, but sin not.' 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.'
Francis BaconOf all the things in nature, the formation and endowment of man was singled out by the ancients.
Francis BaconYoung people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
Francis BaconBoldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.
Francis BaconLet the mind be enlarged... to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind
Francis BaconAsk counsel of both timesof the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.
Francis BaconThe 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 BaconThe pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
Francis BaconIt is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less.
Francis BaconThe poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body and reduce it to harmony.
Francis BaconDoctor Johnson said, that in sickness there were three things that were material; the physician, the disease, and the patient: and if any two of these joined, then they get the victory; for, Ne Hercules quidem contra duos [Not even Hercules himself is a match for two]. If the physician and the patient join, then down goes the disease; for then the patient recovers: if the physician and the disease join, that is a strong disease; and the physician mistaking the cure, then down goes the patient: if the patient and the disease join, then down goes the physician; for he is discredited.
Francis BaconThere is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
Francis BaconThe human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections... What a man had rather were true he more readily believes.
Francis BaconThey who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.
Francis BaconAll authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either upon an art, or upon a man.
Francis BaconHe that cometh to seek after knowledge, with a mind to scorn, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction.
Francis BaconTravel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
Francis BaconJudges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables :The supreme law of all is the weal [weatlh/ well-being] of the people.
Francis BaconIf you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not.
Francis BaconThere is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self.
Francis Bacon