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There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.

— Roger Bacon

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More quotes by Roger Bacon

Many secrets of art and nature are thought by the unlearned to be magical.

Peter Nicholls (1979)

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

Opus majus: A translation by Robert Belle Burke. Vol 1 (1962)

To ask the proper question is half of knowing.

The strongest argument proves nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences, and the goal of all speculation.

But I did not work all that much, since in the pursuit of Wisdom this was not required.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Roger Bacon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.