Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Novum Organum by Francis Bacon
“the specious meditations, speculations, and theories of mankind are but a kind of insanity, only there is no one to stand by and observe it”
Novum Organum, Book I, Aphorism X, trans. Joseph Devey (ed.), 1902
Bacon compares untested theorising to madness without a witness, contrasting the subtlety of nature with the confidence of human systems.
Citation: "the specious meditations, speculations, and theories of mankind are but a kind of insanity, only there is no one to stand by and observe it" — Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I, Aphorism X, trans. Joseph Devey (ed.), 1902. (id novum-organum-q3)
Portrait: Portrait of Francis Bacon., Paul van Somer I / Formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger, Public domain.
