If I sit and daydream, the images rush by like a succession of colored slides. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
A king that would not feel his crown too heavy for him, must wear it every day; but if he think it… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If a man's wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If my people look as if they're in a dreadful fix, it's because I can't get them out of a technical dilemma. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
The mystery lies in the irrationality by which you make appearance - if it is not irrational, you make illustration. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
But the best demonstration by far is experience, if it go not beyond the actual experiment. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
That conceit, elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in his instructions to the King, his son, "that fortune hath somewhat the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Pyrrhus, when his friends congratulated to him his victory over the Romans under Fabricius, but with great slaughter of his own side,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
...neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat" in the pan; which is, when that which… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
We must see whether the same clock with weights will go faster at the top of a mountain or at the bottom… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
But this is that which will dignify and exalt knowledge: if contemplation and action be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Another error is an impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
The Syllogism consists of propositions, propositions consist of words, words are symbols of notions. Therefore if the notions themselves (which is the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Take an arrow, and hold it in flame for the space of ten pulses, and when it cometh forth you shall find… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I think that one of the things is that, if you are going to decide to be a painter, you have got… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Nevertheless if any skillful Servant of Nature shall bring force to bear on matter, and shall vex it and drive it to… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not kin to God by his spirit,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If I might control the literature of the household, I would guarantee the well-being of Church and State. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Defer not charities till death; for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If you want to convey fact, this can only ever be done through a form of distortion. You must distort to transform… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
If I go to the National Gallery and I look at one of the great paintings that excite me there, it's not… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Great art is deeply ordered. Even if within the order there may be enormously instinctive and accidental things, nevertheless they come out… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle ways and witty reconcilements,--as if they would make an arbitrament between… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
The best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
When Christ came into the world, peace was sung; and when He went out of the world, peace was bequeathed. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
...neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share
The divisions of science are not like different lines that meet in one angle, but rather like the branches of trees that join in… — Francis Bacon Copy Share
The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent… — Francis Bacon Copy Share
I should have been, I don't know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity… — Francis Bacon Copy Share
The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative. — Francis Bacon Copy Share
Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share
