John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
1984 Franis Baon 1561-1626 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 1984 |
| AUTHOR: | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) |
| QUOTATION: | My Lord St. Albans said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Apothegms. No. 17. |
| Note 1. Tall men are like houses of four stories, wherein commonly the uppermost room is worst furnished.—Howell (quoted): Letter i. book i. sect. ii. (1621.) Often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high.—Thomas Fuller: Andronicus, sect. vi. par. 18, 1. Such as take lodgings in a head That ’s to be let unfurnished. Samuel Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 161. [back] |