"The contemplation of things as they are, without superstition or imposture, without error or confusion, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention."

"The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For everyone (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of n…"

"For good and evil, there is no place for neutrality."

"Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand 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 …"

"The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain."