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 More Quotes by Claude Bernard More Quotes From Claude Bernard 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 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 I do not ... reject the use of statistics in medicine, but I condemn not trying to get beyond them and believing in statistics as the foundation of medical science. ... Statistics ... apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still [uncertain or] indeterminate. ... There will always be some indeterminism ... in all the sciences, and more in medicine than in any other. But man's intellectual conquest consists in lessening and driving back indeterminism in proportion as he gains ground for determinism by the help of the experimental method. Claude Bernard men science believe
