Quote#Freedom
I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were…
Quote byFrancis Bacon · 1561–1626
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II.
English (original)
I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.
— Francis Bacon
More from Francis Bacon
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. Variants: Scientia ipsa potentia est. Knowledge itself is power. Scientia potestas est. / Scientia potentia est. / Scientia est potentia. Knowledge is power.
I have taken all knowledge to be my province
We are wont to call that human reasoning which we apply to Nature the anticipation of Nature (as being rash and premature) and that which is properly deduced from things the interpretation of Nature.
Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.
Nay, number (itself) in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for (as Virgil saith) it never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.