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[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.

— Claude Bernard Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)

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More quotes by 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.

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.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Claude Bernard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.