Quotes from Francis Bacon

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

Crafty men condemn studies; Simple men admire them; And wise men use them: For they teach not their own use: but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.

There is no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

I don't think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck.

Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down.

He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.

Spouses are great impediments to great enterprises.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

It 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.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat" in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he says it as if another had said it to him.

Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

It is a great happiness when men's professions and their inclinations accord.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

It is natural to die as to be born.

This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind, for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences; therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution...

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.