Scientia potentia est Scientia potentia est The phrase "scientia potentia est"" (or "scientia est potentia" or also "scientia potestas est")" is a Latin aphorism meaning "knowledge is power". It is commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, although there is no known occurrence of this precise phrase in Bacon's English or Latin writings. However, the expression ""ipsa scientia potestas est"" ('knowledge itself is power') occurs in Bacon's "Meditationes Sacrae" (1597). The exact phrase ""scientia potentia est"" was written for the first time in the 1668 version of the work "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes, who was secretary to Bacon as a young man. The related
Latin word order Latin word order The word order of classical Latin is relatively free. Subject, Object, and Verb can come in any order; adjectives and possessives can go before or after their noun, and so on. A commonly found feature of Latin is hyperbaton, in which a phrase is split up by other words, e.g. "Sextus est Tarquinius" "it is Sextus Tarquinius". A complicating factor in Latin word order is that there are variations between the style of different authors, and also between different genres of writing; in Caesar's historical writing the verb is much more likely to come at the end