Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Francis BaconRead
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.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that all new ideas are simply rediscoveries of things that have already existed.
Francis Bacon references both Solomon and Plato to convey a profound philosophical idea: that there is nothing truly new under the sun, and what we perceive as novel concepts are merely forgotten knowledge being recalled. This notion suggests that wisdom is cyclical, with humanity continuously reinterpreting previous insights and experiences rather than creating entirely new thoughts.
In practice
In a lecture about the evolution of ideas, one might use this quote to highlight that innovation often stems from historical concepts.
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
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
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.
Whenever you see, in an official lectionary, the command to omit two or three verses, you can normally be sure that they contain words of judgment. Unless, of course, they are about sex.
How can He be perfect? Everything He ever makes...dies.
How characteristic of your perverse heart that longs only for what happens to be out of reach.
By divine mandate the interpreter and guardian of the Scriptures, and the depository of Sacred Tradition living within her, the Church alone is the entrance to salvation: She alone, by herself, and under the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the source of truth.
Cruelty might be very human, and it might be very cultural, but it's not acceptable.
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