All knowledge is my province

Lately, I’ve been reading a bit about the great Francis Bacon, and in parallel, I’ve been working on a site where I curate letters from the public domain. While googling for letters related to Bacon, I came across one he sent to his uncle—and the line in bold gave me goosebumps:

Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities, the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries; the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropy, is so fixed in my mind, as it cannot be removed. And I do easily see, that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man’s own; which is the thing I greatly affect.

What an absolute banger of a line to say, ‘I’m curious.’