“Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.”
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The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts reflection combines them experimentation verifies the result of that combination.
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.