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The Doubter Is A True Man Of Science: He Doubts Only Himself And His Interpretations, But He Believes In Science.
-Claude Bernard
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The Doubter Is A

Claude Bernard
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The Doubter Is A True Man Of Science: He Doubts Only Himself And His Interpretations, But He Believes In Science.

Understanding the Quote: "the doubter is a true man of science: he doubts only himself..."

This quote by Claude Bernard reflects deeply on the theme of believe. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Believe, Science, Men, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Claude Bernard interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Claude Bernard

Claude Bernard is celebrated for insightful thoughts on believe and science. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Believe
Science
Men
More From Claude Bernard
Even Mistaken Hypotheses And Theories Are Of Use In Leading To Discoveries. This Remark Is True In All The Sciences. The Alchemists Founded Chemistry By Pursuing Chimerical Problems And Theories Which Are False. In Physical Science, Which Is More Advanced Than Biology, We Might Still Cite Men Of Science Who Make Great Discoveries By Relying On False Theories.
Mistake
Science
Men
In Science, The Best Precept Is To Alter And Exchange Our Ideas As Fast As Science Moves Ahead.
Moving
Ideas
Moving Ahead
With The Aid Of These Active Experimental Sciences Man Becomes An Inventor Of Phenomena, A Real Foreman Of Creation; And Under This Head We Cannot Set Limits To The Power That He May Gain Over Nature Through Future Progress Of The Experimental Sciences.
Real
Science
Men
It Is Impossible To Devise An Experiment Without A Preconceived Idea; Devising An Experiment, We Said, Is Putting A Question; We Never Conceive A Question Without An Idea Which Invites An Answer. I Consider It, Therefore, An Absolute Principle That Experiments Must Always Be Devised In View Of A Preconceived Idea, No Matter If The Idea Be Not Very Clear Nor Very Well Defined.
Science
Views
Ideas
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.
Science
Goal
Physicians
I Do Not ... Reject The Use Of Statistics In Medicine, But I Condemn Not Trying To Get Beyond Them And Believing In Statistics As The Foundation Of Medical Science. ... Statistics ... Apply Only To Cases In Which The Cause Of The Facts Observed Is Still [uncertain Or] Indeterminate. ... There Will Always Be Some Indeterminism ... In All The Sciences, And More In Medicine Than In Any Other. But Man's Intellectual Conquest Consists In Lessening And Driving Back Indeterminism In Proportion As He Gains Ground For Determinism By The Help Of The Experimental Method.
Believe
Science
Men
Men Who Have Excessive Faith In Their Theories Or Ideas Are Not Only Ill Prepared For Making Discoveries; They Also Make Very Poor Observations. Of Necessity, They Observe With A Preconceived Idea, And When They Devise An Experiment, They Can See, In Its Results,only A Confirmation Of Their Theory. In This Way They Distort Observation And Often Neglect Very Important Facts Because They Do Not Further Their Aim.
Science
Men
Discovery
Well-observed Facts, Though Brought To Light By Passing Theories, Will Never Die; They Are The Material On Which Alone The House Of Science Will At Last Be Built.
Death
Science
Light
The First Requirement In Using Statistics Is That The Facts Treated Shall Be Reduced To Comparable Units.
Science
Statistics
Requirements
We Must Never Make Experiments To Confirm Our Ideas, But Simply To Control Them.
Science
Ideas
Experiments
Il Ne Fallait Jamais Faire Des Expériences Pour Confirmer Ses Idées, Mais Simplement Pour Les Contrôler. We Must Never Make Experiments To Confirm Our Ideas, But Simply To Control Them.
Ideas
Experiments
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.
Mean
Science
Machines
Men Who Believe Too Firmly In Their Theories, Do Not Believe Enough In The Theories Of Others. So ... These Despisers Of Their Fellows ... Make Experiments Only To Destroy A Theory, Instead Of To Seek The Truth.
Believe
Science
Men
Real Science Exists, Then, Only From The Moment When A Phenomenon Is Accurately Defined As To Its Nature And Rigorously Determined In Relation To Its Material Conditions, That Is, When Its Law Is Known. Before That, We Have Only Groping And Empiricism.
Real
Science
Law
All The Vital Mechanisms, Varied As They Are, Have Only One Object, That Of Preserving Constant The Conditions Of Life In The Internal Environment.
Environment
Constant
Internals
Science Rejects The Indeterminate.
Rejects
A Great Discovery Is A Fact Whose Appearance In Science Gives Rise To Shining Ideas, Whose Light Dispels Many Obscurities And Shows Us New Paths.
Light
Discovery
Ideas
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.
Science
Climbing
Horizon
First Causes Are Outside The Realm Of Science.
Science
Firsts
Causes
We Must Alter Theory To Adapt It To Nature, But Not Nature To Adapt It To Theory.‎
Nature
Science
Natural
It Has Often Been Said That, To Make Discoveries, One Must Be Ignorant. This Opinion, Mistaken In Itself, Nevertheless Conceals A Truth. It Means That It Is Better To Know Nothing Than To Keep In Mind Fixed Ideas Based On Theories Whose Confirmation We Constantly Seek, Neglecting Meanwhile Everything That Fails To Agree With Them.
Knowledge
Mean
Science
The Doubter Is A True Man Of Science: He Doubts Only Himself And His Interpretations, But He Believes In Science.
Believe
Science
Men
Put Off Your Imagination, As You Put Off Your Overcoat, When You Enter The Laboratory. Put It On Again, As You Put On Your Overcoat, When You Leave.
Science
Imagination
Laboratory
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 Phenomen Will No Longer Appear.
Science
Doe
Causes
The Experimenter Who Does Not Know What He Is Looking For Will Not Understand What He Finds.
Science
Doe
Knows
In These Researches I Followed The Principles Of The Experimental Method That We Have Established, I.e., That, In Presence Of A Well-noted, New Fact Which Contradicts A Theory, Instead Of Keeping The Theory And Abandoning The Fact, I Should Keep And Study The Fact, And I Hastened To Give Up The Theory.
Giving Up
Science
Principles
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.
Teaching
Mean
Science
But While I Accept Specialization In The Practice, I Reject It Utterly In The Theory Of Science.
Practice
Accepting
Theory
In The Philosophic Sense, Observation Shows And Experiment Teaches.
Science
Observation
Teach
In A Word, I Consider Hospitals Only As The Entrance To Scientific Medicine; They Are The First Field Of Observation Which A Physician Enters; But The True Sanctuary Of Medical Science Is A Laboratory; Only There Can He Seek Explanations Of Life In The Normal And Pathological States By Means Of Experimental Analysis.
Life
Mean
Science
The Constancy Of The Internal Environment Is The Condition For Free And Independent Life: The Mechanism That Makes It Possible Is That Which Assured The Maintenance, With The Internal Environment, Of All The Conditions Necessary For The Life Of The Elements.
Life
Independent
Science
Science Admits No Exceptions; Otherwise There Would Be No Determinism In Science, Or Rather, There Would Be No Science.
Would Be
Determinism
Exception
Effects Vary With The Conditions Which Bring Them To Pass, But Laws Do Not Vary. Physiological And Pathological States Are Ruled By The Same Forces; They Differ Only Because Of The Special Conditions Under Which The Vital Laws Manifest Themselves.
Science
Law
Special
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.
Teaching
Successful
Science
Mediocre Men Often Have The Most Acquired Knowledge
Men
Mediocrity
Mediocre
In Teaching Man, Experimental Science Results In Lessening His Pride More And More By Proving To Him Every Day That Primary Causes, Like The Objective Reality Of Things, Will Be Hidden From Him Forever And That He Can Only Know Relations.
Teaching
Pride
Reality
Laplace Considers Astronomy A Science Of Observation, Because We Can Only Observe The Movements Of The Planets; We Cannot Reach Them, Indeed, To Alter Their Course And To Experiment With Them. "on Earth," Said Laplace, "we Make Phenomena Vary By Experiments; In The Sky, We Carefully Define All The Phenomena Presented To Us By Celestial Motion." Certain Physicians Call Medicine A Science Of Observations, Because They Wrongly Think That Experimentation Is Inapplicable To It.
Science
Thinking
Sky
Descriptive Anatomy Is To Physiology What Geography Is To History, And Just As It Is Not Enough To Know The Typography Of A Country To Understand Its History, So Also It Is Not Enough To Know The Anatomy Of Organs To Understand Their Functions.
Country
Anatomy And Physiology
Typography
We Must Remain, In A Word, In An Intellectual Disposition Which Seems Paradoxical, But Which, In My Opinion, Represents The True Mind Of The Investigator. We Must Have A Robust Faith And Yet Not Believe.
Faith
Believe
Science
A Man Of Science Rises Ever, In Seeking Truth; And If He Never Finds It In Its Wholeness, He Discovers Nevertheless Very Significant Fragments; And These Fragments Of Universal Truth Are Precisely What Constitutes Science.
Science
Men
Rising
Experiment Is Fundamentally Only Induced Observation.
Science
Observation
Experiments
Mediocre Men Often Have The Most Acquired Knowledge. It Is In The Darker. It Is In The Darker Regions Of Science That Great Men Are Recognized; They Are Marked By Ideas Which Light Up Phenomena Hitherto Obscure And Carry Science Forward.
Knowledge
Science
Men
Science Does Not Permit Exceptions.
Doe
Permit
Exception
We Achieve More Than We Know. We Know More Than We Understand. We Understand More Than We Can Explain.
Knowledge
Science
Achievement
[those] Who Have An Excessive Faith In Their Theories Or In Their Ideas Are Not Only Poorly Disposed To Make Discoveries, But They Also Make Very Poor Observations.
Science
Discovery
Ideas
Man Can Learn Nothing Unless He Proceeds From The Known To The Unknown.
Learning
Science
Men
Ardent Desire For Knowledge, In Fact, Is The One Motive Attracting And Supporting Investigators In Their Efforts; And Just This Knowledge, Really Grasped And Yet Always Flying Before Them, Becomes At Once Their Sole Torment And Their Sole Happiness. Those Who Do Not Know The Torment Of The Unknown Cannot Have The Joy Of Discovery Which Is Certainly The Liveliest That The Mind Of Man Can Ever Feel.
Knowledge
Science
Men
The First Entirely Vital Action, So Termed Because It Is Not Effected Outside The Influence Of Life, Consists In The Creation Of The Glycogenic Material In The Living Hepatic Tissue. The Second Entirely Chemical Action, Which Can Be Effected Outside The Influence Of Life, Consists In The Transformation Of The Glycogenic Material Into Sugar By Means Of A Ferment.
Mean
Tissues
Sugar
Feeling Alone Guides The Mind.
Passion
Feeling Alone
Feelings
Art Is 'i'; Science Is 'we'.
Witty
Art
Science
If I Had To Define Life In A Single Phrase, I Should Clearly Express My Thought Of Throwing Into Relief One Characteristic Which, In My Opinion, Sharply Differentiates Biological Science. I Should Say: Life Is Creation.
Life
Science
Relief
Men Who Have Excessive Faith In Their Theories ... Make Poor Observations, Because They Choose Among The Results Of Their Experiments Only What Suits Their Object, Neglecting Whatever Is Unrelated To It And Carefully Setting Aside Everything Which Might Tend Toward The Idea They Wish To Combat
Science
Men
Ideas
We Must Keep Our Freedom Of Mind, ... And Must Believe That In Nature What Is Absurd, According To Our Theories, Is Not Always Impossible.
Nature
Believe
Science
Progress Is Achieved By Exchanging Our Theories For New Ones Which Go Further Than The Old, Until We Find One Based On A Larger Number Of Facts. ... Theories 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.
Science
Numbers
Progress
The Physiologist Is Not A Man Of The World, He Is A Scientist, A Man Caught And Absorbed By A Scientific Idea That He Pursues; He No Longer Hears The Cries Of The Animals, No Longer Sees The Flowing Blood, He Sees Only His Idea: Organisms That Hide From Him Problems That He Wants To Discover. He Doesn't Feel That He Is In A Horrible Carnage; Under The Influence Of A Scientific Idea, He Pursues With Delight A Nervous Filament Inside Stinking And Livid Flesh That For Any Other Person Would Be An Object Of Disgust And Horror.
Animal
Men
Blood
When Entering On New Ground We Must Not Be Afraid To Express Even Risky Ideas So As To Stimulate Research In All Directions. As Priestley Put It, We Must Not Remain Inactive Through False Modesty Based On Fear Of Being Mistaken.
Science
Ideas
Entering
Hatred Is The Most Clear- Sighted, Next To Genius.
Hatred
Genius
Next
In The Patient Who Succumbed, The Cause Of Death Was Evidently Something Which Was Not Found In The Patient Who Recovered; This Something We Must Determine, And Then We Can Act On The Phenomena Or Recognize And Foresee Them Accurately. But Not By Statistics Shall We Succeed In This; Never Have Statistics Taught Anything, And Never Can They Teach Anything About The Nature Of The Phenomenon.
Science
Statistics
Succeed
In Every Enterprise ... The Mind Is Always Reasoning, And, Even When We Seem To Act Without A Motive, An Instinctive Logic Still Directs The Mind. Only We Are Not Aware Of It, Because We Begin By Reasoning Before We Know Or Say That We Are Reasoning, Just As We Begin By Speaking Before We Observe That We Are Speaking, And Just As We Begin By Seeing And Hearing Before We Know What We See Or What We Hear.
Science
Mind
Hearing
The Joy Of Discovery Is Certainly The Liveliest That The Mind Of Man Can Ever Feel.
Science
Men
Discovery
The Fact That Knowledge Endlessly Recedes As The Investigator Is About To Grasp It Is What Constitutes At The Same Time His Torment And Happiness.
Facts
Torment
Investigators
The Investigator Should Have A Robust Faith - And Yet Not Believe.
Believe
Should Have
Belief
The Eloquence Of A Scientist Is Clarity; Scientific Truth Is Always More Luminous When Its Beauty Is Unadorned Than When It Is Tricked Out In The Embellishments With Which Our Imagination Would Seek To Clothe It.
Imagination
Clarity
Truth Is
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. '
Art
Science
Personality
Particular Facts Are Never Scientific; Only Generalization Can Establish Science.
Facts
Particular
Generalization
A Discovery Is Generally An Unforeseen Relation Not Included In Theory.
Science
Discovery
Theory
The Terrain Is Everything; The Germ Is Nothing.
Germs
Terrain
To Be Worthy Of The Name, An Experimenter Must Be At Once Theorist And Practitioner. While He Must Completely Master The Art Of Establishing Experimental Facts, Which Are The Materials Of Science, He Must Also Clearly Understand The Scientific Principles Which Guide His Reasoning Through The Varied Experimental Study Of Natural Phenomena. We Cannot Separate These Two Things: Head And Hand. An Able Hand, Without A Head To Direct It, Is A Blind Tool; The Head Is Powerless Without Its Executive Hand.
Art
Science
Two
The Great Experimental Principle, Then, Is Doubt, That Philosophic Doubt Which Leaves To The Mind Its Freedom And Initiative, And From Which The Virtues Most Valuable To Investigators In Physiology And Medicine Are Derived.
Freedom
Science
Medicine
Priestley [said] That Each Discovery We Make Shows Us Many Others That Should Be Made.
Science
Discovery
Made
It Is What We Know Already That Often Prevents Us From Learning.
Inspirational
Educational
Learning
As Soon As The Circumstances Of An Experiment Are Well Known, We Stop Gathering Statistics. ... The Effect Will Occur Always Without Exception, Because The Cause Of The Phenomena Is Accurately Defined. Only When A Phenomenon Includes Conditions As Yet Undefined,only When A Phenomenon Includes Conditions As Yet Undefined, Can We Compile Statistics. ... We Must Learn Therefore That We Compile Statistics Only When We Cannot Possibly Help It; For In My Opinion, Statistics Can Never Yield Scientific Truth.
Learning
Knowledge
Science
Obervation Is A Passive Science, Experimentation Is An Active Science.
Science
Observation
Passive
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.
Thinking
Mind
Influence
The True Worth Of An Experimenter Consists In His Pursuing Not Only What He Seeks In His Experiment, But Also What He Did Not Seek.
Truth
Experiments
True Worth
True Science Teaches Us To Doubt And, In Ignorance, To Refrain.
Ignorance
Science
Doubt
Science Increases Our Power In Proportion As It Lowers Our Pride.
Pride
Science
Increase
Those Who Do Not Know The Torment Of The Unknown Cannot Have The Joy Of Discovery.
Discovery
Joy
Torment
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.
Acceptance
Science
Names
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.
Independence
Body
Environment
The Minds That Rise And Become Really Great Are Never Self-satisfied, But Still Continue To Strive.
Science
Self
Mind
A Fact In Itself Is Nothing. It Is Valuable Only For The Idea Attached To It, Or For The Proof Which It Furnishes.
Ideas
Facts
Proof
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.
Drug
Poison
Matter
The Science Of Life Is A Superb And Dazzlingly Lighted Hall Which May Be Reached Only By Passing Through A Long And Ghastly Kitchen.
Long
Kitchen
May
The Better Educated We Are And The More Acquired Information We Have, The Better Prepared Shall We Find Our Minds For Making Great And Fruitful Discoveries.
Science
Discovery
Mind
Our Ideas Are Only Intellectual Instruments Which We Use To Break Into Phenomena; We Must Change Them When They Have Served Their Purpose, As We Change A Blunt Lancet That We Have Used Long Enough.
Ideas
Long
Intellectual
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