Quotes from Claude Bernard

The minds that rise and become really great are never self-satisfied, but still continue to strive.

We must keep our freedom of mind, ... and must believe that in nature what is absurd, according to our theories, is not always impossible.

First causes are outside the realm of science.

We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them.

Particular facts are never scientific; only generalization can establish science.

Experiment is fundamentally only induced observation.

Science rejects the indeterminate.

Priestley [said] that each discovery we make shows us many others that should be made.

But while I accept specialization in the practice, I reject it utterly in the theory of science.

Well-observed facts, though brought to light by passing theories, will never die; they are the material on which alone the house of science will at last be built.

Science admits no exceptions; otherwise there would be no determinism in science, or rather, there would be no science.

A contemporary poet has characterized this sense of the personality of art and of the impersonality of science in these words,-'Art is myself; science is ourselves. '

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

Experimentation is an active 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.

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.

Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge

Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.

Feeling alone guides the mind.

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

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

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

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

We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them.