It is impossible to devise an experiment without a preconceived idea; devising an experiment, we said, is putting a question; we never conceive a question without an idea which invites an answer. I consider it, therefore, an absolute principle that experiments must always be devised in view of a preconceived idea, no matter if the idea be not very clear nor very well defined.

Claude Bernard

Categorized in : Ideas Science Views

It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.

Claude Bernard

learning educational inspirational

The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds.

Claude Bernard

knows doe science

When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.

Claude Bernard

acceptance names science

All the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object, that of preserving constant the conditions of life in the internal environment.

Claude Bernard

internals constant environment

Man can learn nothing unless he proceeds from the known to the unknown.

Claude Bernard

learning men science

Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations. Of necessity, they observe with a preconceived idea, and when they devise an experiment, they can see, in its results,only a confirmation of their theory. In this way they distort observation and often neglect very important facts because they do not further their aim.

Claude Bernard

discovery men science

Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of discovery.

Claude Bernard

torment joy discovery

Descriptive anatomy is to physiology what geography is to history, and just as it is not enough to know the typography of a country to understand its history, so also it is not enough to know the anatomy of organs to understand their functions.

Claude Bernard

anatomy-and-physiology typography country

Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.

Claude Bernard

increase pride science

The terrain is everything; the germ is nothing.

Claude Bernard

terrain germs

A fact in itself is nothing. It is valuable only for the idea attached to it, or for the proof which it furnishes.

Claude Bernard

proof facts ideas

Art is 'I'; science is 'we'.

Claude Bernard

witty science art

The science of life is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen.

Claude Bernard

kitchen may long

The doubter is a true man of science: he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science.

Claude Bernard

men science believe

The eloquence of a scientist is clarity; scientific truth is always more luminous when its beauty is unadorned than when it is tricked out in the embellishments with which our imagination would seek to clothe it.

Claude Bernard

clarity truth-is imagination

Put off your imagination, as you put off your overcoat, when you enter the laboratory. Put it on again, as you put on your overcoat, when you leave.

Claude Bernard

laboratory imagination science

Hatred is the most clear- sighted, next to genius.

Claude Bernard

next genius hatred

Ardent desire for knowledge, in fact, is the one motive attracting and supporting investigators in their efforts; and just this knowledge, really grasped and yet always flying before them, becomes at once their sole torment and their sole happiness. Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of discovery which is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

Claude Bernard

men science knowledge

In science, the best precept is to alter and exchange our ideas as fast as science moves ahead.

Claude Bernard

moving-ahead ideas moving

The true worth of an experimenter consists in his pursuing not only what he seeks in his experiment, but also what he did not seek.

Claude Bernard

true-worth experiments truth