(source) |
Claude Bernard
(12 Jul 1813 - 10 Feb 1878)
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Claude Bernard - Context of quote
“The experimenter who does not know…”
Illustrated Quote - Medium (500 x 350 px)
Alchemist c.1477 (source)
— Claude Bernard
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This quote is one of those tantalizingly known only as “attributed.” Any original quote by Bernard would presumably be in his native French language, which makes tracking the source down more difficult. It is also seen1 as:
He who does not know what he is looking for will not lay hold of what he has found when he gets it.
A related idea appears in Bernard’s book, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (1865). As translated2, he says: “L’ecueil de I’expérimentateur consistera donc à croire connaître ce qu’il ne connaît pas, et à prendre pour des vérités absolues des vérités qui ne sont que relatives.”
The pitfall of the experimenter consists in believing that which he does not know, and taking as absolute truths those truths which are only relative.
If you know the primary source of the attributed quote, please contact the Webmaster.
1 As quoted by Sir Michael Foster, in Masters of Medicine, Vol. 1, Claude Bernard (1899), 228, without citation.
2 Claude Bernard, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (1865), 86. As translated by Webmaster. Also see translation by A.S. Weber, in his Nineteenth-Century Science: An Anthology (2000), 317.
2 Claude Bernard, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (1865), 86. As translated by Webmaster. Also see translation by A.S. Weber, in his Nineteenth-Century Science: An Anthology (2000), 317.
Text by Webmaster. The subject quote appears, for example, in John Farley, The Spontaneous Generation Controversy from Descartes to Oparin (1977), 3, but without citation. (source)
See also:
- Science Quotes by Claude Bernard.
- 12 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Bernard's birth.
- Claude Bernard - context of quote The alchemists founded chemistry - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Claude Bernard - context of quote “The alchemists founded chemistry” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
- Claude Bernard - context of quote The experimenter - Large image (800 x 600 px)
- Claude Bernard - context of quote Make experiments to … control our ideas - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Claude Bernard - context of quote Make experiments to … control our ideas - Large image (800 x 600 px)