Quotes from Francis Bacon

But of one thing I am satisfied, that the reason for which a vacuum was introduced by Leucippus and Democritus (namely, that without it the same bodies could not embrace and fill sometimes larger and sometimes smaller spaces) is a false one. For matter is clearly capable of folding and unfolding itself in space, within certain limits, without the interposition of a vacuum; nor is there in air two thousand times as much of vacuity as there is in gold.

One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum doemonum, because it filleth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before.

La poesía le da a la humanidad lo que la historia le niega.

Errors of nature differ from singular instances in this, that the latter are prodigies of species, the former of individuals. Their use is pretty nearly the same, for they correct the erroneous impressions suggested to the understanding by ordinary phenomena, and reveal common forms.

So when any of the four pillars of government, are mainly shaken, or weakened (which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather.

All colours will agree in the dark

My painting is not violent, it's life that is violent. Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves, the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. We are born with a scream; we come into life with a scream and maybe love is a mosquito net between the fear of living and the fear of death.

It appears, then, that there are six lesser forms of aids to the memory; viz.: the cutting off of infinity; the reduction of the intellectual to the sensible; impression made on the mind in a state of strong emotion; impression made on the mind disengaged; multitude of points to take hold of; expectation beforehand.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.

People prefer to believe what they want to be true.

The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love.

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.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

It is a true rule that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque or with an inward and secret contempt.

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

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.

All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at the same time they want to be free. But nobody is free.

But we may go further, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends; without which the world is but a wilderness.

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the heroical virtue.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.