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For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

Francis Bacon

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Francis Bacon
Age: 65 †
Born: 1561
Born: January 22
Died: 1626
Died: April 9
Astrologer
Former Lord Chancellor
Judge
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Writer
Francis Bacon Saint Albans
Francis Bacon St. Albans
Franciscus Bacon de Verulamio
Franciscus Baconus de Verulamio
Francis Bacon
1st Viscount St. Alban
Francis
Viscount Saint Alban
Baron of Verulam Bacon
Francis
Viscount St. Albans Verulam
Franciscus Bacon
Francis Bacon de Verulamius
Francis Bacon of Verulam
Francis
Viscount St. Alban
Upon
Exactly
Sting
Evil
Except
Natures
Form
Conditions
Serpent
Without
Rest
Belly
Going
Virtue
Join
Men
Open
Innocence
Serpentine
Wisdom
Envy
Columbine
Possible
Forms
Baseness

More quotes by Francis Bacon

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We only have our nervous system to paint.
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Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
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Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.
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We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
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A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint.
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Such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener.
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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.
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Nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as breach of unity.
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God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
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But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.
Francis Bacon
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A man cannot speak to his son, but as a father to his wife, but as a husband to his enemy, but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak, as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person.
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All bravery stands upon comparisons.
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Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
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Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
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the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
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He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.
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Out of monuments, names, words proverbs ...and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.
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One always starts work with the subject, no matter how tenuous it is, and one constructs an artificial structure by which one can trap the reality of the subject-matter that one has started from.
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You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become completely a game, by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is, that it's going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to become any good at all.
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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.
Francis Bacon