Leonard Bacon Quotes

Leonard Bacon: 2 quotes0 likes

“"Thou shalt not get found out" is not one of God's commandments, and no man can be saved by trying to keep it.”

Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 511.

“I insist that my positive knowledge, however small, is not to be set aside for the gentleman's ignorance, however great.”

Leonard Bacon

Reported in Friends' Intelligencer and Journal (1898) Volume 55, p. 210. No earlier source for this quotation is given, or has otherwise been identified. Several variants are found elsewhere, e.g., ""I cannot allow my opponent's Ignorance, however vast, to offset my knowledge, however small," reported in The Kingston Daily Freeman, Volume 33, Number 167, 3 May 1904, p. 4; and "my knowledge, however small, must outweigh your ignorance, however large," reported in Semi-Centennial (1939), p. 5, by Leonard Bacon, the great-grandson of the preacher. This quote has recently been mis-attributed to William James.