Aphorism de Trop

Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men’s minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like; but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy, and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

--- SIR FRANCIS BACON, ‘Of Truth’, Essays, 1597-1625