Consider, O reader, how far we can lend credence to the ancients who strove to define the soul and life,--things which cannot be proved; while those things which can be clearly known and proved by experience remained during so many centuries ignored and misrepresented! The eye, which so clearly demonstrates its functions, has been up to my time defined in one manner by countless authorities; I by experience have discovered another definition.
经验到不了的地方
自然变幻无穷，其中奥秘，非经验所能穷尽
Nature is full of infinite causes which are beyond the pale of
experience.
权威从来只是被借用
记忆，而非智力才是言必称权威的推理者倚仗的资本。
He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.
感官是知识的土壤
感官是灵魂的灵魂。我们用感知拾得知识。
若感官停运，人类的一切日常功能将丧失，如生而盲哑之人。
All our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions.
The sense ministers to the soul, and not the soul sense; and where the sense which ministers ceases to serve the soul, all the functions of that sense are lacking in life, as is evident in those who are born dumb and blind.
眼睛为感官之王
你们觉得，沉思方可得道，视觉却在妨碍此种真思，因此，许多哲学家为求真理，自愿遗弃视觉。要我来说，感官之中，眼睛为王。它尽忠职守，那些嘈杂混乱，蕴含无数谎言的伪科学演讲，在它面前无半点可乘之机。听觉也起着同样的效用。感情，盼望每一个感官均和谐运作，因此，它对于唐突尤为敏感。抛弃视觉的哲学家，只为了更流畅的演讲。其实，此举形同疯子。为何他不在狂流来袭时闭上双眼，等过后再睁开呢？愚蠢到抛弃视觉的哲学家，他的演说值得信任吗？他不过是个疯子而已。
And if thou sayest that sight impedes the security and subtlety of mental meditation, by reason of which we penetrate into divine knowledge, and that this impediment drove a philosopher to deprive himself of his sight, I answer that the eye, as lord of the senses, performs its duty in being an impediment to the confusion and lies of that which is not science but discourse, by which with much noise and gesticulation argument is constantly conducted; and hearing should do the same, feeling, as it does, the offence more keenly, because it seeks after harmony which devolves on all the senses.
And if this philosopher deprived himself of his sight to get rid of the obstacle to his discourses, consider that his discourses and his brain were a party to the act, because the whole was madness. Now could he not have closed his eyes when this frenzy came upon him, and have kept them closed until the frenzy consumed itself? But the man was mad, thediscourse insane, and egregious the folly of destroying his eye-sight.
个人的判断是亲密的骗子
我们自己的判断，是与我们最亲密的骗子。
There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.
箴言不可信
名人箴言，不过是未经验证的语言，不可信。
人类夸夸其谈，语言大多浮华无实。动物木讷口钝，话语却真实有用。一连串的谎言，不如三言两语的实话。
Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience.
Man discourseth greatly, and his discourse is for the greater part empty and false; the discourse of animals is small, but useful and true: slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.
对知识负责
对真理研究不负责任，是对知识与爱的侮辱。因为爱因知识而生，知识越是确定，爱便越是浓烈。而知识的确定源于全面的了解，它包含了事物的全部。因此，如果研究不全，忽略了主要部分或者某些细节，那意义何在呢？三天打鱼，两天晒网，这是愚蠢的表现。它只信奉将短暂，好像即便花上一辈子，也无法穷尽事物的面目。于是，人们转向上帝的胸怀，那里包容万物。他们剖析它的每一微粒，好像非如此不可似的。
Those who seek to abbreviate studies do injury to knowledge and to love because the love of anything is the daughter of this knowledge.
The fervency of the love increases in proportion to the certainty of the knowledge, and the certainty issues from a complete knowledge of all the parts, which united compose the totality of the thing which ought to be loved.
Of what value, then, is he who abbreviates the details of those matters of which he professes to render a complete account, while he leaves behind the chief part of the things of which the whole is composed?
It is true that impatience, the mother of stupidity, praises brevity, as if such persons had not life long enough to enable them to acquire a complete knowledge of one subject such as the human body!
And then they seek to comprehend the mind of God, in which the universe is included, weighing it and splitting it into infinite particles, as if they had to dissect it!
知识辞典
何为三段论，先质疑后求证。
何为诡辩术，滥竽充数，惑人耳目。
何为纯理论，尚未付诸实践的学说。
Syllogism: to speak doubtfully.
Sophism: to speak confusedly; falsehood for truth.
Theory: knowledge without practice.
理性帮你寻找错误
你若不知错误，如何抹去瑕疵。你若找出错误，便应及时改正，防止再犯。理性使人洞察一切，因此作出准确判断。它来自正确规律，后者又源于正确的经验。所以，经验衍生一切人文科学。
These rules are only to be used in correcting the figures, since every man makes some mistakes in his first composition, and he who is not aware of them cannot correct them; but thou being conscious of thine errors wilt correct thy work and amend errors where thou findest them, and take care not to fall into them again. But if thou attemptest to apply these rules in composition thou wilt never finish anything, and confusion will enter into thy work. Through these rules thou shalt acquire a free and sound judgement, since sound judgement and thorough understanding proceed from reason arising from sound rules, and sound rules are the offspring of sound experience, the common mother of all the sciences and arts.
遇难题先解开较易者
有时候，你正在绞尽脑汁地思考一个问题，如同整个脑子都装满一个物品似的，突然，另一个问题不请自来。此时，你应该对比两者的难易程度，先取得解开较难问题的钥匙，而后才去寻找另一问题的解释。
And if in the contemplation and definition of one subject a second subject intervenes,--as happens when the mind is filled with an object,--in such cases he must decide which of the two objects is the more difficult of definition, and pursue that one until he arrives at perfect clearness of definition, and then turn to the definition of the other.
随时记录
留心你身旁的每一事物，留心人们如何互动。譬如，当遇见争执时，应该将争执双方，连同旁边的劝架者和观望者的一举一动，记录在你的小本子里。随身携带小本子是必须的，纸张最好彩色，以防记录遭涂抹。小本子要保存得当，写完一本，马上换新。要知道，事物状况百出，变幻无常，单靠记忆是无法存留的。所以，有一些笔记，过后才不至于迷茫。
Note and consider the circumstances and the actions or men, as they talk, dispute, laugh or fight together, and not only the behaviour of the men themselves, but that of the bystanders who separate them or look on at these things; and make a note of them, in this way, with slight marks in your little note-book. And you should always carry this note-book with you, and it should be of coloured paper, so that what you write may not be rubbed out; but (when it is used up) change the old for a new one, since these things should not be rubbed out, but preserved with great care, because such is the infinity of the forms and circumstances of objects, that the memory is incapable of retaining them; wherefore keep these sketches as your guides and masters.