Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.
Francis BaconRead
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bacon critiques the reliance on established views, arguing that it hinders the pursuit of truth.
Francis Bacon highlights the dangers of adhering to commonly accepted beliefs, suggesting that such beliefs often lead to errors rather than enlightenment. He warns that the logic we use may reinforce these misconceptions, thus obstructing our quest for genuine understanding and knowledge. Instead of advancing our comprehension of the world, such logic can entrench false ideas, implying that a more critical and questioning approach is necessary for discovering the truth.
Themes
TruthLogicPhilosophyKnowledgeMisconception
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about science and belief, one might quote Bacon to emphasize the need for questioning assumptions.
More from Francis Bacon
All quotes →Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Francis BaconRead
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
Francis BaconRead
Great art is always a way of concentrating, reinventing what is called fact, what we know of our existence- a reconcentration… tearing away the veils, the attitudes people acquire of their time and earlier time. Really good artists tear down those veils
Francis BaconRead
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Francis BaconRead
Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
Francis BaconRead
Similar quotes
When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on the state to which we are reduced, and the heart sullenly contracts and accommodates itself to what it most abhorred.
William GodwinRead
We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves.
Ray BradburyRead
Hinduism is a living organism. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. Knowledge is limitless and so also the application of truth. Everyday we add to our knowledge of the power of Atman (soul) and we shall keep on doing so.
Mahatma GandhiRead
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
Eric HofferRead
Though in the order of nature angels rank above men, yet, by scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad angels.
Saint AugustineRead
There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead