Quotes from Claude Bernard

Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.

The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.

The fact that knowledge endlessly recedes as the investigator is about to grasp it is what constitutes at the same time his torment and happiness.

In teaching man, experimental science results in lessening his pride more and more by proving to him every day that primary causes, like the objective reality of things, will be hidden from him forever and that he can only know relations.

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

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.

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

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

True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.

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

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

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

We must alter theory to adapt it to nature, but not nature to adapt it to theory.

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.

Science does not permit exceptions.

The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

The better educated we are and the more acquired information we have, the better prepared shall we find our minds for making great and fruitful discoveries.

The first requirement in using statistics is that the facts treated shall be reduced to comparable units.

Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.

The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.

Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.

A discovery is generally an unforeseen relation not included in theory.

Obervation is a passive science, experimentation is an active science.

We achieve more than we know. We know more than we understand. We understand more than we can explain.