George Sarton Quote

The chief requisite for the making of a good chicken pie is chicken; no amount of culinary legerdemain can make up for the lack of chicken. In the same way, the chief requisite for the history of science is intimate scientific knowledge; no amount of philosophic legerdemain can make up for its absence.

"The Teaching of the History of Science" Sci. Monthly 7, 193-211 (1918)