What is beset?

Famous quotes containing the word beset:

    We live in a world beset on all sides with mysteries and riddles—and so ‘tis no matter—else it seems strange, that Nature, who makes every thing so well to answer its destination ... should so eternally bungle it as she does, in making so simple a thing as a married man.
    Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    Alone, I am satisfied with myself. With others, I am beset by troubling comparisons.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    There are four classes of idols which beset men’s minds. To these for distinction’s sake I have assigned names—calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theatre.
    Francis Bacon (1561–1626)