Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
Claude BernardRead
Man does not limit himself to seeing; he thinks and insists on learning the meaning of phenomena whose existence has been revealed to him by observation. So he reasons, compares facts, puts questions to them, and by the answers which he extracts, tests one by another. This sort of control, by means of reasoning and facts, is what constitutes experiment, properly speaking; and it is the only process that we have for teaching ourselves about the nature of things outside us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of observation and reasoning in understanding the world around us.
Claude Bernard highlights the human capacity for critical thinking and inquiry through the process of observation, reasoning, and experimentation. He suggests that true understanding comes not just from seeing but from actively engaging with our observations, analyzing them, and drawing conclusions based on the reasoning of facts. This methodical approach is central to scientific exploration and helps uncover the nature of external phenomena.
Themes
ObservationReasoningLearningScienceExperiment
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom setting, a teacher can use this quote to encourage students to engage in critical thinking during science experiments.
More from Claude Bernard
All quotes →When a physician is called to a patient, he should decide on the diagnosis, then the prognosis, and then the treatment. ... Physicians must know the evolution of the disease, its duration and gravity in order to predict its course and outcome. Here statistics intervene to guide physicians, by teaching them the proportion of mortal cases, and if observation has also shown that the successful and unsuccessful cases can be recognized by certain signs, then the prognosis is more certain.
Claude BernardRead
The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Claude BernardRead
Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.
Claude BernardRead
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Claude BernardRead
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
Claude BernardRead
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