Claude Bernard Quotes about Knowledge

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

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

Knowledge, Science, Achievement

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

Knowledge, Mean, Science

"An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine".

Ardent desire for knowledge, in fact, is the one motive attracting and supporting investigators in their efforts; and just this knowledge, really grasped and yet always flying before them, becomes at once their sole torment and their sole happiness. Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of discovery which is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

Claude Bernard

Knowledge, Science, Men

Claude Bernard (2012). “An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine”, p.239, Courier Corporation

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

Knowledge, Science, Men

Claude Bernard (2012). “An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine”, p.70, Courier Corporation

As soon as the circumstances of an experiment are well known, we stop gathering statistics. ... The effect will occur always without exception, because the cause of the phenomena is accurately defined. Only when a phenomenon includes conditions as yet undefined,Only when a phenomenon includes conditions as yet undefined, can we compile statistics. ... we must learn therefore that we compile statistics only when we cannot possibly help it; for in my opinion, statistics can never yield scientific truth.

Claude Bernard

Learning, Knowledge, Science

Claude Bernard (2012). “An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine”, p.159, Courier Corporation