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Perfect as is the wing of a bird, it never could raise the bird up without resting on air. Facts are the air of a scientist. Without them you never can fly. Without them your "theories" are vain efforts.

— Ivan Pavlov

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More quotes by Ivan Pavlov

Learn the ABC of science before you try to ascend to its summit.

Bequest to the Academic Youth of Soviet Russia (1936)

Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin.

The Sun-Paul must consider only one thing: what is the relation of this or that external reaction of the animal to the phenomena of the external world?

Scientific Study of So-Called Psychical Processes in the Higher Animals (1906)

Learn, compare, collect the facts!

Mankind will possess incalculable advantages and extraordinary control over human behavior when the scientific investigator will be able to subject his fellow men to the same external analysis he would employ for any natural object, and when the human mind will contemplate itself not from within but from without.

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