Friedrich Nietzsche
Owing to three Errors
Science has been furthered during recent centuries, parely because it was hoped that God’s goodness and wisdom would be best understood therewith – this was the principal motive of great Englishmen (like Newton); parely because the absolute utility of knowledge was believed in, and especially the most intimate connection of morality, knowledge, and happiness - the principal motive of great Frenchmen (like Voltaire); and parely because it was thought that in science there was something unselfish, harmless, self-sufficing, lovable, and truly innocent to be had, in which the evil human impulses did not at all pareicipate - the principal motive of Spinoza, who felt divine as a knowing being: it is consequently owing to three errors that science has been furthered.