John Colet, Statutes of St. Paul’s School:

“As tovching in this scole what shalbe taught of the Maisters and lernyd of the scolars it passith my wit to devyse and determyn in particular but in generall to speke and sum what to saye my mynde, wolde they were taught all way in good litterature both laten and greke, and goode auctors suych as haue the veray Roxnayne eliquence joyned withe wysdome specially Cristyn auctours that wrote theyre wysdome with clene and chast laten other in verse or in prose, for my entent is by thys scole specially to increase knowledge and worshipping of god and oure lorde Crist jesu and good Crist en lyff and manors in the Children

And for that entent I will the Chyldren lerne ffirst aboue all the Cathechyson in Englysh and after the accidence that I made or sum other yf eny be better to the purpose to induce chyldren more spedely to laten spech And thanne Institutem Christiani homines which that lernyd Erasmus made at my request and the boke call Copia of the same Erasmus And thenne other auctors Christian as lactancius prudentius and proba and sedulius and Juuencus and Baptista Mantuanus and suche other as shalbe taught convenyent and moste to purpose unto the true laten spech all barbary all corrupcion all Laten adulterate which ignorant blynde folis brought into this worlde and with the same hath distayned and poysenyed the olde laten spech and the varay Romayne tong which in the tyme of Tully and Salust and Virgill and Terence was vsid, whiche also seint Jerome and seint ambrose and seint Austin and many hoorly doctors lernyd in theyr tymes. I say that ffylthynesse and all such abus you which the later blynde worlde brought in which more ratheyr may be callid blotterature thenne litterature I vtterly abbanysh and Exclude oute this scole and charge the Maisters that they tec he all way that is the best and instruct the chyldren in greke and Redyng laten in Redyng unto them such auctours that hathe with wisdome joyned the pure chaste eloquence.”

Francis Bacon, Of Simulation and Dissimulation:

DISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of policy or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics that are the great dissemblers.

Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of her husband and dissimulation of her son; attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms against Vitellius, he saith, We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius. These properties, of arts or policy and dissimulation or closeness, are indeed habits and faculties several, and to be distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of judgment as he can discern what things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, and what to be showed at half lights, and to whom and when (which indeed are arts of state and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them), to him a habit of dissimulation is a hinderance and a poorness.

But if a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it is left to him generally to be close, and a dissembler. For where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and wariest way in general; like the going softly by one that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men that ever were have had all an openness and frankness of dealing; and a name of certainty and veracity; but then they were like horses well managed; for they could tell passing well when to stop or turn; and at such times when they thought the case indeed required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion spread abroad of their good faith and clearness of dealing made them almost invisible.