Book I, ch. 27.
Discourses
Context: Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.
Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 7
The Law of Mind (1892)
“There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds.”
Aphorism 39
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Context: There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names — calling the first class, Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater.
“The believers have four signs: good humor, tactfulness, kind heartedness and openhandedness”
Muhammad al-Hur al-Aamili, Wasā'il al-Shī‘ah, vol.6, p. 321
Religous Wisdom
Interview with Don Swaim (1986)
Context: I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one. … In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money. … the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.
“The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.”
That we ought not to be angry with Mankind, Chap. xxviii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)
Context: Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
“The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 16: The Coming of Winter
