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
Menander army to civil war by crossing the River Rubicon. The popular form "the die is cast" is from the Latin "iacta alea est", a mistranslation by Suetonius, 121 AD. According to Plutarch, the actual phrase used by Julius Caesar at the crossing of the Rubicon was a quote in Greek from Menander's play "Arrhephoros", with the different meaning "Let the die be cast!". See discussion at "the die is cast" and ""Alea iacta est"". "Lewis and Short", citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read "Jacta alea esto", which they translate as "Let the die be