Experimentation

Si verum dicitis, Scholae, quod possitis sanare quaslibet febres citra evacuationem: sed nolle, prae metu deterioris recidivae. Ad luctam descendite, Humoristae. Sumamus e Xenodociis, e castris, vel aliunde 200 aut 500 pauperes febrientes, pluriticos, &c. partiamur illos per medium: mittamus sortes, ut mihi illorum una medietas cedat, & altera vobis. Ego illos curabo citra phlebotomiam, & evacuationem sensibilem; vos vero facite ut scitis (nec enim vos adstringo ad iactantiam phlebotomi, vel solutivi abstinentiam) videbimus quot funera uterque noftrum habiturus: praemium autem certaminis sint 300 floreni, utrimque depositi. Hic vestrum agitur negotium. O Magistratus, quibus cordi est salus populi! Pro bono publico certabitur, pro veritatis cognitione, pro vita & anima vestra, filiorum, viduarum, pupillorum totiusque sanitate populi. Ac tandem pro methodo curativa, in actuali contradictorio disputata. Superaddite praemium, honorarii loco, ex officio. Compellite nolentes intrare in certamen, vel palaestra obmutescentes cedere. Ostendant tum, quod modo oblatrando stentantur. Sic namque diplomata ostendenda sunt.

Jan Baptist Van Helmont, Infantis Nutritio ad Vitam Longam, Ortus Medicinæ id est Initia Physicæ Inaudita, 1648, pp. 622–624

I view nootropics as akin to a biological lottery; one good discovery pays for all. I forge on in the hopes of further striking gold in my particular biology. Your mileage will vary. All you have to do, all you can do is to just try it.

Gwern Branwen, Nootropics, 2010

Mêmê en matière d’amour et de séduction, il faut observer, tester, experimenter.

Nicolas Guéguen, Psychologie de la séduction: Pour mieux comprendre nos comportements amoureux, Paris, 2009, p. 227

The deductive method in Archimedes probably originated in the same remarkable sociological phenomenon which also caused the poor state of physics in antiquity. Ancient civilization was based on slave labor and, in general, their patrons and representatives did not have occupations, but lived on their rents. In ancient opinion, therefore, logical deduction and mathematics were worthy of free-born men, whereas experimentation, as requiring manual work, was considered to be a slavish occupation.

Edgar Zilsel, The genesis of the concept of physical law, Philosophical review, vol. 51, no. 3, 1942, pp. 245–279, p. 254