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FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626), although his philosophy is in many ways unsatisfactory, has permanent importance as the founder of modern inductive method and the pioneer in the attempt at logical systematization of scientific procedure.
Bertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy

Bacon’s most important book, The Advancement of Learning, is in many ways remarkably modern. He is commonly regarded as the originator of the saying “Knowledge is power,” and though he may have had predecessors who said the same thing, he said it with new emphasis. The whole basis of his philosophy was practical: to give mankind mastery over the fo
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
Rupert Grant was a clever young fellow, but he had that tendency which youth and cleverness, when sharply combined, so often produce, a somewhat extravagant scepticism.
G. K. Chesterton • The G. K. Chesterton Collection [50 Books]
Perhaps he is a fool and a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.
James Baldwin • Giovanni's Room
At Princeton, Bradley has become such an excellent basketball player that it is necessary to look beyond college basketball to find a standard that will put him in perspective. The standard’s name is Oscar Robertson, of the Cincinnati Royals, who is the finest basketball player yet developed. Robertson, who is known in basketball as The O, stands o
... See moreJohn McPhee • A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton
Bacon was the first of the long line of scientifically minded philosophers who have emphasized the importance of induction as opposed to deduction. Like most of his successors, he tried to find some better kind of induction than what is called “induction by simple enumeration.” Induction by simple enumeration may be illustrated by a parable. There
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
when free speech was a perilous exercise, and when to declaim against vice and folly was to court personal risk, the fable was invented, or resorted to, by the moralist as a circuitous method of achieving the end he desired to reach—the