Francis Bacon...on studies
To spend too much time in studies is sloth, to use them too much for ornament is affectation, to make judgement wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience, for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study, and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except that they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use, but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
- Essays 50. Of Studies, 1625