C.M. Bacon Quotes

The only really interesting thing is what happens between two people in a room.

Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.

There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death . . . Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.

Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest.

Disciples do owe their masters only a temporary belief, and a suspension of their own judgment till they be fully instructed.

What, then, remains but that we still should cry, For being born, and, being born, to die?

For knowledge, too, is itself power.

If I might control the literature of the household, I would guarantee the well-being of Church and State.

The only hope [of science] ... is in genuine induction.

I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him. If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.

Ask counsel of both timesof the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.

I would live to study, not study to live.

Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.

When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him.

But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this-that men despair and think things impossible.

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

It was a high speech of Seneca that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."

He who desires solitude is either an animal or a god.

We think according to nature. We speak according to rules. We act according to custom.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affection; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.

I regret not starting to paint earlier...It is one of the few things I do regret.

When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

The 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.

Of all things known to mortals, wine is the most powerful and effectual for exciting and inflaming the passions of mankind, being common fuel to them all.

If you can talk about it, why paint it?

Secrecy in suits goes a great way towards success.

Of all the things in nature, the formation and endowment of man was singled out by the ancients.

Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.

The world's a bubble, and the life of man, Less than a span.

It is rightly laid down that 'true knowledge is knowledge by causes'. Also the establishment of four causes is not bad: material, formal, efficient and final.

Those that want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts.

That which above all other yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet.

Painting is a duality and abstract painting is an entirely aesthetic thing. It always remains on one level. It is only really interesting in the beauty of its patterns or its shapes.

Virtue is like precious odours,-most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.

Perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures.

The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

I'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.

If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.

We only have our nervous system to paint.

There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.

I like, you may say, the glitter and colour that comes from the mouth, and I've always hoped in a sense to be able to paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset.

A picture should be a re-creation of an event rather than an illustration of an object; but there is no tension in the picture unless there is a struggle with the object.

The bee enclosed and through the amber shown Seems buried in the juice which was his own.

There are many wise men that have secret hearts and transparent countenances.

It was well said that envy keeps no holidays.

For whatever deserves to exist deserves also to be known, for knowledge is the image of existence, and things mean and splendid exist alike.

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.