Quote#Remembrance
It is true that may hold in these things, which is the general root…
Quote byFrancis Bacon · 1561–1626
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Sylva Sylvarum Century X (1627).
English (original)
It is true that may hold in these things, which is the general root of superstition; namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.
— Francis Bacon
More from Francis Bacon
I have taken all knowledge to be my province
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.
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.
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.
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
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.