Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller differences; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions; and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman

“Of Vicissitude of Things,” Essays, No. 58 (1625)
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