20 quotes
Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
The mental never influences the physical. It is always the physical that modifies the mental, and when we think that the mind is diseased, it is always an illusion.
Pensées (1937)
Science admits no exceptions; otherwise there would be no determinism in science, or rather, there would be no science.
Leçons de Pathologie Expérimentale (1872)
Considered in itself, the experimental method is nothing but reasoning by whose help we methodically submit our ideas to experience,—the experience of facts.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
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 stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.
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."
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
Man can learn nothing unless he proceeds from the known to the unknown.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
If I had to define life in a word, it would be: Life is creation.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
Science does not permit exceptions.
When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
True science teaches us to doubt and to abstain from ignorance.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
[P]articular facts are never scientific; only generalization can establish science.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
[A] living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
A modern poet has characterized the personality of art and the impersonality of science as follows: Art is I: Science is We.
Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. IV (1928)
[T]heories are only hypotheses, verified by more or less numerous facts. Those verified by the most facts are the best; but even then they are never final, never to be absolutely believed.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
[T]he science of life […] is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
Indeed, proof that a given condition always precedes or accompanies a phenomenon does not warrant concluding with certainty that a given condition is the immediate cause of that phenomenon. It must still be established that, when this condition is removed, the phenomenon will no longer appear.
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)