Home / Authors / Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Quotes

Former Lord Chancellor

Francis Bacon, a renowned philosopher, politician, and writer, served as the Lord Chancellor of England. He is best known for his profound philosophical thoughts and extensive literary works, which have had a lasting impact on the world.

Filter quotes by topic

All Men Science Ifs Mind Knowledge Humans May Knows Understanding Nature Use Firsts Inspirational People Virtue Art Atheism Painting Wise Natural

Famous Francis Bacon Quotes

“Existence is in a way so banal, you may as well try and make a kind of grandeur of it. Francis Bacon in conversation in Daniel Farson”

Art Existence Painting Banal

Author:Francis Bacon

“I paint for myself. I don't know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy myself.”

Knows Art Know How Painting Paint Painter Fine Arts Famous Artist Fine Artists Painting Art Painting And Art

Author:Francis Bacon

“When I paint I am ageless, I just have the pleasure or the difficulty of painting.”

Passion Pleasure Painting Difficulty Paint Ageless

Author:Francis Bacon

“Painting gave meaning to my life which without it would not have had”

Art Painting

Author:Francis Bacon

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

Happens Today Stuff Painting Pure Advantage Luck Intuition Taking Advantage

Book:Marlene Dumas, Francis Bacon: det unika med att vara en människa

Source: Marlene Dumas, Francis Bacon: det unika med att vara en människa

“All painting is an accident. But it's also not an accident, because one must select what part of the accident one chooses to preserve.”

Painting Accidents Preserves Select

Author:Francis Bacon

“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 within me which return me to life more violently.”

Ifs Looks Kind Painting Return All Kinds Sensations Gallery Valve

Author:Francis Bacon

“I think I tend to destroy the better paintings, or those that have been better to a certain extent. I try and take them further, and they lose all their qualities, and they lose everything. I think I would say that I destroy all the better paintings.”

Thinking Trying Has Beens Certain Loses Quality Painting

Book:Francis Bacon

Source: Francis Bacon

“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.”

Men Art Artist Games Difficult Painting Fascinating Really Deep

Author:Francis Bacon

“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.”

Beautiful Born Love Is Violence Tree Painting Eating Violent Landscape Scream Insects Fear Of Death Parts Of Life Mosquitoes Maybe Love Beautiful Landscapes

Author:Francis Bacon

“You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you make by accident. In painting, you have to know what you do, not how, when you do it.”

Ifs Knows Want Know How Painting Accidents Representation Accuracy

Author:Francis Bacon

“Painting is a duality and abstract painting is an entirely aesthetic thing. It always remains on one level. It is only really interesting in the beauty of its patterns or its shapes.”

Interesting Levels Painting Shapes Remains Patterns Abstract Aesthetic Duality Really Interesting Abstract Painting

Author:Francis Bacon

“It's always hopeless to talk about painting - one never does anything but talk around it.”

Doe Painting Communication Hopeless

Book:Francis Bacon

Source: Francis Bacon

“Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of the artist's mood. But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his happiest paintings.”

People Thinking May Feelings Artist Courses Natural Emotion Painting Expression Despair Mood Natural Feelings

Author:Francis Bacon

“Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment later.”

Moments Feelings Emotion Special Painting Excitement Unhappiness Ambiguous

Author:Francis Bacon

“I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if I drew something first, then my paintings would be illustrations of drawings.”

Ifs Firsts I Can Done Would Be Painting Instinct Drawing Right Thing Erase Because I Can Illustration

Author:Francis Bacon

“Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees.”

Painting Interpretation

Author:Francis Bacon

“We only have our nervous system to paint.”

Painting Paint Nervous Nervous System

Author:Francis Bacon

“Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas.”

Painting Patterns Nervous Canvas Nervous System

Book:Bacon

Source: Bacon

“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 and chance.”

Knows Men Should Has Beens Made Chance Painting Should Have Vanity Should Have Been Robbers

Author:Francis Bacon