Argument is conclusive... but... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may never rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment. For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns, his hearer's mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.
English polymath, philosopher and friar (c.1219/20–c.1292)
Roger Bacon (c. 1219/20 – c. 1292), also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: "wonderful teacher"), was an English theologian, philosopher and Franciscan friar. An English philosopher who placed considerable emphasis on empiricism, he was one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method. Later studies have emphasized his reliance on occult and alchemical traditions. All his theoretical writings were originally in Latin.
From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Alternative Names:
Rogerus
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Rogerus Bacon
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Rogerus Baconus
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Doctor Mirabilis
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Frater Rogerus
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Rogerus Baconis
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Rogerius Baconis
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Ruggiero Bacone
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Rogerus Bachon
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Rogerius Bacconis
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Ruggero Bacone
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Roger Bacco
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Rogerius Baco
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Roger
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Roger Bachon
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Roger Bacho
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Rogerius Bacco
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Roger Baco
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Rogeri Baconis
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Admirable Doctor
From Wikidata (CC0)
For sounds like thunder, and coruscations like lightning, may be made in the air, and they may be rendered even more horrible than those of nature herself. A small quantity of matter, properly manufactured, not larger than the human thumb, may be made to produce a horrible noise and coruscation. And this may be done many ways, by which a city or an army may be destroyed, as was the case when and his men broke their pitchers and exhibited their lamps, fire issuing out of them with inestimable noise, destroyed an infinite number of the army of the Midianites.
Oh how delightful is the taste of wisdom to those who are thus steeped in it from its very fount and origin. They who have not tried this cannot feel the delight of wisdom, just as a sick man cannot estimate the flavour of food. But because they are affected with this sort of mental sickness, and their intellect in this matter is as it were deaf from their very birth, so as not to appreciate the delight of harmony, on this account they grieve not at this so great loss of wisdom, though indeed without doubt it is an infinite loss.