The Great Instauration Quotes

“Never cite an author except in a matter of doubtful credit.”

“It is a history of Generations, Pretergenerations, and Arts.”

“It would not be amiss to intersperse observations occasionally.”

“Never introduce a controversy unless in a matter of great moment.”

“This history I call Primary History, or the Mother History.”

“Upon this history... mechanical and illiberal as it may seem, the greatest diligence must be bestowed.”

“I cannot be fairly asked to abide by the decision of a tribunal which is itself on trial.”

“Bodies will not be destroyed or annihilated; rather than that they will turn themselves into various forms.”

“The intellect is not qualified to judge except by means of induction, and induction in its legitimate form.”

“It is the empty things that are vast; things solid are most contracted and lie in little room.”

“It will not be amiss, when the source of any vanity or credulity happens to present itself, to make a note of it.”

“The senses deceive; but then at the same time they supply the means of discovering their own errors.”

“The sense is like the sun, which reveals the face of earth, but seals and shuts up the face of heaven.”

“The more difficult and laborious the work is the more ought it to be discharged of matters superfluous.”

“There are found in the intellectual as in the terrestrial globe waste regions as well as cultivated ones.”

“In what is now done in the matter pene science there is only a whirling round about, and perpetual agitation, ending were it began.”

“For all that concerns ornaments of speech, similitudes, treasury of eloquence, and such like emptinesses let it be utterly dismissed.”

“The office of the sense shall be only to judge of the experiment, and... the experiment itself shall judge of the thing.”

“Questions (I do not mean as to causes but as to the fact) should be added, in order to provoke and stimulate further inquiry.”

“These mediocrities and middle ways so much praised, in deferring to opinions and customs, turn to the great detriment of the sciences.”