Principal Doctrine 24

“If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to discriminate between that which is matter of opinion and awaits further confrmation and that which is already present, whether in sensation or in feeling or in any mental apprehension, you will throw into confusion even the rest of your sensations by your groundless belief, so as to reject the truth altogether. If you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation in ideas based on opinion, as well as that which does not, you will not escape error, as you will be taking sides in every question involving truth and error.” (Epicurus, Principal Doctrine 24)

Translated by Hicks (1910)

Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon (1953)