Neither is this second fruit of friendship, in opening the understanding, restrained only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel; (they indeed are best;) but even without that, a man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not.
Where these words come from
- Lots of sources credit Francis Bacon with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/575/pg575-images.html
More from Francis Bacon
See allReading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
Francis BaconHistories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.Francis BaconProsperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.Francis BaconFor friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections, from storm and tempests; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness, and confusion of thoughts.Francis BaconFor a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.Francis BaconTruth is not to be sought in the good fortune of any particular conjuncture of time, which is uncertain, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal.Francis Bacon
Francis BaconHistories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.Francis BaconProsperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.Francis BaconFor friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections, from storm and tempests; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness, and confusion of thoughts.Francis BaconFor a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.Francis BaconTruth is not to be sought in the good fortune of any particular conjuncture of time, which is uncertain, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal.Francis BaconMore on friendship
It takes a village to raise a child.African proverbThe typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one.'
C.S. LewisMy friends are my 'estate.' Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.
Emily DickinsonWithout friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
AristotleThe only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo EmersonIs it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?
Confucius
C.S. LewisMy friends are my 'estate.' Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.Emily DickinsonWithout friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.AristotleThe only way to have a friend is to be one.Ralph Waldo EmersonIs it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?Confucius