Some Quotes of Note 1

Quotes.

You know years ago an old teacher of mine said a very true thing.

He said:

"One uses quotes when someone says what you want to say better than you can say it"

Very often I find myself thinking things but unable to properly articulate it the way I want to.

Oh sure I do a lot of writing but most often the things that people see have not only been bubbling away in my cranium for some time but are in there third or fourth editted incarnation by the time anyone sees them!

Here following then are some things that I really feel need to be said ... but don't.

Galacian phrase: "Yo no creo en brujas - pero hay"
(I don't believe in witches - but they exist!)

The concepts behind ... words need to be clear. One concept is superstition. Witchcraft is not necessarily a superstition. Often a superstition is thought to be a belief not founded in whatever world view is current. This usage is unfortunate, because it helps rigidify and confine thought. The creed of one age is the superstition of another; many of our own current beliefs will one day be considered superstitions. It is much more helpful to define superstition as a belief not founded in any coherent world view. Medieval Catholics, ancient Iranians, and contemporary Dayaks are not necessarily more superstitious than modern Englishmen or Americans. If you hold a belief that you have thought through and placed in a coherent world picture, then that belief is not a superstition for you. If one the other hand you hold a belief loosely or uncritically and fail to set it properly in a coherent world picture, that belief is a superstition for you. The number of scientific, religious, and political superstitions today are no fewer than the past. Some people are superstitious all of the time, and all people are superstitious some of the time. When witchcraft fits into a coherent view of the world, it is not a superstition.

- Jeffrey P Russell - A History of Witchcraft

These come from Roger Bacon and to us in this case, (important to note as there is contention amongst some translators) from Blish's Doctor Mirabilis (one of the "After Such Knowledge" trilogy which I can't love enough!!)

"Neither the voice of authority, nor the wieght of reason and argument are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind."

(De erroribus medicorum)

"A thorough consideration of knowledge consists of two things, perception of what is necessary to obtain it, and then of the method of applying it to all matters that they may be directed by its means in the proper way. For by the light of knowledge the Church of God is governed, the commonwealth of the faithful is regulated, the conversion of unbelievers is secured, and those who persist in their malice can be held in check by the excellence of knowledge, so that they may be driven off from the borders of the Church in a better way than by the shedding of Christian blood. Now all matters requiring the guidance of knowledge are reduced to these four heads and no more. Therefore, I shall now try to present to your Holiness the subject of the attainment of this knowledge, not only relatively but absolutely, according to the tenor of my former letter, as best I can at the present time, in the form of a plea that will win your support until my fuller and more definite statement is completed. Since, moreover, the subjects in question are weighty and unusual, they stand in need of the grace and favour accorded to human frailty....

Now there are four chief obstacles in grasping truth, which hinder every man, however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to learning, namely, submission to faulty and unworthy authority, influence of custom, popular prejudice, and concealment of our own ignorance accompanied by an ostentatious display of our knowledge. Every man is entangled in these difficulties, every rank is beset, for people without distinction draw the same conclusion from three arguments, than which none could be worse, namely, for this the authority of our predecessors is adduced, this is the custom, this is the common belief; hence correct. An opposite conclusion and a far better one should be drawn from the premisses, as I shall abundantly show by authority, experience and reason. Should, however, these three errors be refuted by the convincing force of reason, the fourth is always ready and on everyone's lips for the excuse of his own ignorance, and although he has no knowledge worthy of the name, he may yet shamelessly magnify it, so that at least to the wretched satisfaction of his own folly he suppresses and evades the truth. Moreover, from these deadly banes come all the evils of the human race; for the most useful, the greatest, and most beautiful lessons of knowledge, as well as the secrets of all science and art, are unknown. But, still worse, men blinded in the fog of these four errors do not perceive their own ignorance, but with ever precaution cloak and defend it so as not to find a remedy; and worst of all, although they are in the densest shadows of error, they think they are in the full light of truth. For these reasons they reckon that truths most firmly established are at the extreme limits of falsehood, that our greatest blessings are of no moment, and our chief interests possess neither weight nor value. On the contrary, they proclaim what is most false, praise what is worst, extol what is most vile, blind to every gleam of wisdom and scorning what they can obtain with great ease. In the excess of their folly they expend their utmost efforts, consume much time, pour out large expenditures on matters of little or no use and of no merit in the judgment of a wise man. Hence it is necessary that the violence and banefulness of these four causes of all evils should be recognized in the beginning and rebuked and banished from the consideration of science. For where these bear sway, no reason influences, no right decides, no law binds, religion has no domain, nature’s mandate fails, the complexion of things is changed, their order is confounded, vice prevails, virtue is extinguished, falsehood reigns and is hissed off the scene."

(Causes of Error)