An illustrational form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas a non-illustrational form works first upon sensation and then slowly leaks back into the fact. — 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 so much the painting that excites me as that the painting unlocks all kinds of valves of sensation… — 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 Image
The best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
When Christ came into the world, peace was sung; and when He went out of the world, peace was bequeathed. — 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 of the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
