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… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
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… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
In every enterprise ... the mind is always reasoning, and, even when we seem to act without a motive, an instinctive logic still directs… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
Descriptive anatomy is to physiology what geography is to history, and just as it is not enough to know the typography of a country… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge. It is in the darker. It is in the darker regions of science that great men… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
Ardent desire for knowledge, in fact, is the one motive attracting and supporting investigators in their efforts; and just this knowledge, really grasped and… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
If I had to define life in a single phrase, I should clearly express my thought of throwing into relief one characteristic which, in… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
Even mistaken hypotheses and theories are of use in leading to discoveries. This remark is true in all the sciences. The alchemists founded chemistry… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
We must remain, in a word, in an intellectual disposition which seems paradoxical, but which, in my opinion, represents the true mind of the… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
The fact that knowledge endlessly recedes as the investigator is about to grasp it is what constitutes at the same time his torment and… — Claude Bernard Copy Share Image
