WIST Quotations

Bernard, Claude -- An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale], ch. 3 (1865) [tr. Greene (1957)]

Dave — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:44:45 +0000

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.

[Les hommes qui ont une foi excessive dans leurs théories ou dans leurs idées sont non-seulement mal disposés pour faire des découvertes, mais ils font aussi de très-mauvaises observations. Ils observent nécessairement avec une idée préconçue, et quand ils ont institué une expérience, ils ne veulent voir dans ses résultats qu’une confirmation de leur théorie. Ils défigurent ainsi l’observation et négligent souvent des faits très-importants, parce qu’ils ne concourent pas à leur but.]

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) French physiologist, scientist
An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale], ch. 3 (1865) [tr. Greene (1957)]
(Source)

(Source (French))

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Speech (1870-06-29), “Mechanism in Thought and Morals,” Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University

Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:12:00 +0000

I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped straggling letters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise will ponder): “A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Speech (1870-06-29), “Mechanism in Thought and Morals,” Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University
(Source)

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 1, § 41 (1882) [tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]

Dave — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:31:17 +0000

The thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions, as seeking explanations of something: to him, success and failure are primarily answers.

[Der Denker sieht in seinen eigenen Handlungen Versuche und Fragen, irgend worüber Aufschluss zu erhalten: Erfolg und Misserfolg sind ihm zu allererst Antworten.]

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 1, § 41 (1882) [tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]
(Source)

Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.

(Source (German)). Other translations:

The thinker sees in his own actions attempts and questionings to obtain information about something or other; success and failure are answers to him first and foremost.
[tr. Common (1911)]

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions -- as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]

In his own actions, the thinker sees experiments and enquiries from which he seeks to obtain insight: to him, success and failure are, first of all, answers.
[tr. Hill (2018)]

Nicoll, James -- Post (1992-03-11), “SCHRODINGER’S CAT??”, Usenet, sci.physics

Dave — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 23:27:39 +0000

Look, I tried the cat experiment. On the third trial, the cat was dead. On each of the subsequent 413 trials, it remained dead. Am I doing something wrong?

James Nicoll (b. 1961) Canadian reviewer, editor
Post (1992-03-11), “SCHRODINGER’S CAT??”, Usenet, sci.physics
(Source)

Pinker, Steven -- Words and Rules, ch. 4 (1999)

Dave — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 14:26:42 +0000

As an experimental psychologist, I have been trained not to believe anything unless it can be demonstrated in the laboratory on rats or sophomores.

Steven Pinker (b. 1954) Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, author
Words and Rules, ch. 4 (1999)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Speech, Digital Biota 2 conference, Cambridge, UK (Sep 1998)

Dave — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:41:37 +0000

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat.

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Speech, Digital Biota 2 conference, Cambridge, UK (Sep 1998)
(Source)

Segments of this impromptu speech are quoted in Richard Dawkins, "Eulogy for Douglas Adams," Church of Saint Martin in the Fields, London (27 Sep 2001). A variant of the quotation ("If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, you end up with a non-working cat. Do not try this.") is often attributed to that article, but the Dawkins eulogy contains the correct form of the quote.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)

Dave — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 23:09:56 +0000

That which we call sin in others, is experiment for us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)
(Source)

Verne, Jules -- Journey to the Center of the Earth, ch. 31 (1864) [tr. Malleson (1877)]

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:52:21 +0000

Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.

[La science, mon garçon, est faite d’erreurs, mais d’erreurs qu’il est bon de commettre, car elles mènent peu à peu à la vérité.]

Jules Verne (1828–1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Journey to the Center of the Earth, ch. 31 (1864) [tr. Malleson (1877)]
(Source)

Alt. trans.: "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth."

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Dave — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:29:20 +0000

Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind. For God’s sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself!

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37
(Source)

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 2 (1881)

Kettering, Charles F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:07:30 +0000

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 14, Lords and Ladies (1992)

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:32:32 +0000

Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or it may be dead. You never know until you look. In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 14, Lords and Ladies (1992)
(Source)

Kettering, Charles F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 11:55:14 +0000

Every great improvement has come after repeated failures. Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)
(Source)

Bernard, Claude -- An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale] (1865)

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:15:29 +0000

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.

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) French physiologist, scientist
An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale] (1865)

Brandeis, Louis -- New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 311 (1932) [dissent]

Dave — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:22:34 +0000

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916–39)
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 311 (1932) [dissent]

Whitman, Walt -- Remark to the author (4 May 1888), Horace Traubel, Walt Whitman’s Camden Conversations [ed. W. Teller (1973)]

Dave — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:28:14 +0000

I like the scientific spirit — the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine — it always keeps the way beyond open.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet
Remark to the author (4 May 1888), Horace Traubel, Walt Whitman’s Camden Conversations [ed. W. Teller (1973)]

Edison, Thomas Alva -- Remarks to M. A. Rosanoff, “Edison in His Laboratory,” Harper’s (Sep 1932)

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:13:48 +0000

If there is such a thing as luck, then I must be the most unlucky fellow in the world. I’ve never once made a lucky strike in all my life. When I get after something I need, I start finding everything in the world I don’t need — one damn thing after another. I find ninety-nine things I don’t need, and then comes number one hundred , and that — at the very last — turns out to be just what I had been looking for.

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
Remarks to M. A. Rosanoff, “Edison in His Laboratory,” Harper’s (Sep 1932)

Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 1, ch. 3 (1.3.4) / 1094b.24ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Ross (1908)]

Dave — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:08:07 +0000

For it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.

[πεπαιδευμένου γάρ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τἀκριβὲς ἐπιζητεῖν καθ᾽ ἕκαστον γένος, ἐφ᾽ ὅσον ἡ τοῦ πράγματος φύσις ἐπιδέχεται: παραπλήσιον γὰρ φαίνεται μαθηματικοῦ τε πιθανολογοῦντος ἀποδέχεσθαι καὶ ῥητορικὸν ἀποδείξεις ἀπαιτεῖν.]

Aristotle (384–322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 1, ch. 3 (1.3.4) / 1094b.24ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Ross (1908)]
(Source)

Possibly the source of this spurious Aristotle quote. (Source (Greek)). Other translations:

For the man of education will seek exactness so far in each subject as the nature of the thing admits, it being plainly much the same absurdity to put up with a mathematician who tries to persuade instead of proving, and to demand strict demonstrative reasoning of a Rhetorician.
[tr. Chase (1847), ch. 1]

It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.
[Source (1852) - earliest version of this frequent translation I found.]

A man who has been well trained will not in any case look for more accuracy than the nature of the matter allows; for to expect exact demonstration from a rhetorician is as absurd as to accept from a mathematician a statement only probable.
[tr. Williams (1869)]

For an educated person will expect accuracy in each subject only so far as the nature of the subject allows; he might as well accept probable reasoning from a mathematician as require demonstrative proofs from a rhetorician.
[tr. Welldon (1892), ch. 2]

For it is the mark of an educated man to require, in each kind of inquiry, just so much exactness as the subject admits of: it is equally absurd to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician, and to demand scientific proof from an orator.
[tr. Peters (1893)]

For it is the mark of an educated mind to expect that amount of exactness in each kind which the nature of the particular subject admits. It is equally unreasonable to accept merely probable conclusions from a mathematician and to demand strict demonstration from an orator.
[tr. Rackham (1934)]

For it is characteristic of a well-educated person to look for the degree of exactness in each kind of investigation that the nature of the subject itself allows. For it is evident that accepting persuasive arguments from a mathematician is like demanding demonstrations from a rhetorician.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]

For a well-schooled man is one who searches for that degree of precision in each kind of study which the nature of the subject at hand admits: it is obviously just as foolish to accept arguments of probability from a mathematician as to demand strict demonstrations from an orator.
[tr. Ostwald (1962)]

For it is the mark of an educated man to seek as much precision in things of a given genus as their nature allows, for to accept persuasive arguments from a mathematician appears to be [as improper as] to demand demonstrations from a rhetorician.
[tr. Apostle (1975)]

For it is the mark of the trained mind never to expect more precision in the treatment of any subject than the nature of that subject permits; for demanding logical demonstrates from a teacher of rhetoric is clearly about as reasonable as accepting mere plausibility from a mathematician.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]

Since it is the mark of an educated person to look in each area for only that degree of accuracy that the nature of the subject permits. Accepting persuasive arguments from a mathematician is like demanding demonstrations from a rhetorician.
[tr. Crisp (2000)]

For it is the mark of an educated person to search for the same kind of clarity in each topic to the extent that the nature of the matter accepts it. For it is similar to expect a mathematician to speak persuasively or for an orator to furnish clear proofs!
[tr. @sentantiq (2018)]

For it belongs to an educated person to seek out precision in each genus to the extent that the nature of the matter allows: to accept persuasive speech from a skilled mathematician appears comparable to demanding demonstrations from a skilled rhetorician.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1842-11-26)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1842-11-26)
(Source)