“ men’s weaknesses and faults are best known from their enemies, their virtues and abilities from their friends, their customs and times from their servants, their conceits and opinions from their familiar friends, with whom they discourse most. General fame is light, and the opinions conceived by superiors or equals are deceitful ”
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605). copy citation
| Author | Francis Bacon |
|---|---|
| Source | The Advancement of Learning |
| Topic | weakness conceit |
| Date | 1605 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5500/5500-h/5500-h.htm |
Context
“specially if they be put to it with a counter-dissimulation, according to the proverb of Spain, Di mentira, y sacar as verdad: “Tell a lie and find a truth.”
(19) As for the knowing of men which is at second hand from reports: men’s weaknesses and faults are best known from their enemies, their virtues and abilities from their friends, their customs and times from their servants, their conceits and opinions from their familiar friends, with whom they discourse most. General fame is light, and the opinions conceived by superiors or equals are deceitful; for to such men are more masked: Verior fama e domesticis emanat.
(20) But the soundest disclosing and expounding of men is by their natures and ends, wherein the weakest sort of men are best interpreted by their natures, and the wisest by their ends.”
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