Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Some books................

     "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.  Read not to contradict and confute; not to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
     "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.  Some books also may be ready by deputy, and abstracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled water, flashy things.  Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.  And, therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not."
-Sir Francis Bacon

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