ON STUDIES

1. 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 read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but they would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters flashy things.
2. 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.

FRANCIS BACON
(1561 — 1626)

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