Quote#Books & Reading
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to…
Quote byFrancis Bacon · 1561–1626
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Meditationes sacræ (1597), Of Studies.
English (original)
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.
— Francis Bacon
More from Francis Bacon
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. Variants: Scientia ipsa potentia est. Knowledge itself is power. Scientia potestas est. / Scientia potentia est. / Scientia est potentia. Knowledge is power.
I have taken all knowledge to be my province
We are wont to call that human reasoning which we apply to Nature the anticipation of Nature (as being rash and premature) and that which is properly deduced from things the interpretation of Nature.
Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.
Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.