Claude Bernard - Idea Quotes

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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
A theory is merely a scientific idea controlled by experiment.

Claude Bernard
Considered by itself, the experimental method is nothing but reasoning by whose help we methodically submit our ideas to experience, — the experience of facts.

Claude Bernard
It has often been said that, to make discoveries, one must be ignorant. This opinion, mistaken in itself, nevertheless conceals a truth. It means that it is better to know nothing than to keep in mind fixed ideas based on theories whose confirmation we constantly seek, neglecting meanwhile everything that fails to agree with them.

Claude Bernard
A physiologist is not a man of fashion, he is a man of science, absorbed by the scientific idea which he pursues: he no longer hears the cry of animals, he no longer sees the blood that flows, he sees only his idea and perceives only organisms concealing problems which he intends to solve.

Claude Bernard
A great discovery is a fact whose appearance in science gives rise to shining ideas, whose light dispels many obscurities and shows us new paths.

Claude Bernard
There must be a general idea to verify; without that there is no scientist.

Claude Bernard
An anticipative idea or an hypothesis is, then, the necessary starting point for all experimental reasoning. Without it, we could not make any investigation at all nor learn anything; we could only pile up sterile observations. If we experiment without a preconceived idea, we should move at random...

Claude Bernard
A fact is nothing in itself, it has value only through the idea connected with it or through the proof it supplies.

Claude Bernard
If an idea presents itself to us, we must not reject it simply because it does not agree with the logical deductions of a reigning theory.

Claude Bernard
Considered in itself, the experimental method is nothing but reasoning by whose help we methodically submit our ideas to experience — the experience of fact.

Claude Bernard
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
Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge. It is in the darker. It is in the darker regions of science that great men are recognized; they are marked by ideas which light up phenomena hitherto obscure and carry science forward.

Claude Bernard
When one calls a new fact a discovery, the fact itself is not a discovery, but rather the new idea derived from it...

Claude Bernard
When entering on new ground we must not be afraid to express even risky ideas so as to stimulate research in all directions. As Priestley put it, we must not remain inactive through false modesty based on fear of being mistaken.

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

Claude Bernard
Our ideas are only intellectual instruments which we use to break into phenomena; we must change them when they have served their purpose, as we change a blunt lancet that we have used long enough.

Claude Bernard
Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations.

Claude Bernard
They make poor observations, because they choose among the results of their experiments only what suits their object, neglecting whatever is unrelated to it and carefully setting aside everything which might tend toward the idea they wish to combat.

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

Claude Bernard