A man's nature is best perceived in privateness, for there is no affectation
 Francis Bacon, The Essays of Francis Bacon (1597). copy citation

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Author Francis Bacon
Source The Essays of Francis Bacon
Topic
Date 1597
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/575/575-h/575-h.htm

Context

“Like as it was with AEsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end, till a mouse ran before her. Therefore, let a man either avoid the occasion altogether; or put himself often to it, that he may be little moved with it. A man's nature is best perceived in privateness, for there is no affectation; in passion, for that putteth a man out of his precepts; and in a new case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him. They are happy men, whose natures sort with their vocations; otherwise they may say, multum incola fuit anima mea;” source