The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it. – Francis Bacon
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other. – Francis Bacon
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. – Francis Bacon
Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow; They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats, and flare up bodily, wings and all. What then? Whos sorry for a gnat or girl? – Elizabeth Barrett Browning