#discovery

“L' univers est dissymetrique... The universe is asymmetric and I am persuaded that life, as it is known to us, is a direct result of the asymmetry of the universe or of its indirect consequences. The universe is asymmetric.”

“There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are sciences and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit of the tree which bears it. Revue Scientifique (1871) Variant translation: There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.”

“Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.”

“In the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind.”

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.”

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”

“Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés. In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind . Lecture, University of Lille”

“My plan of study is traced for this coming year... I am hoping to develop it shortly in the most successful manner... I think that I have already told you that I am on the verge of mysteries, and that the veil which covers them is getting thinner and thinner. The nights seem to me too long, yet I do not complain... I am often scolded by Mme. Pasteur, but I console her by telling her that I shall lead her to fame. The Life of Pasteur (1916) by René Vallery”

“I am on the verge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner. The nights seem to me too long... I am often scolded by Madame Pasteur, but I tell her I shall lead her to fame. Microbe Hunters (1926) by Paul De Kruif”

“I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner. Letter (December 1851); as quoted in The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History (2004) by John M. Barry”

“Even though Mendeleev always denied that electrons exist, they later turned out to be vital for ordering the elements in his table. Patricia Fara , Science A Four Thousand Year History (2009).”

“Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth Century,”

“I suppose when my unknown elements are found, more people will pay us attention.”

“I have no need of proof. The laws of nature, unlike the laws of grammar, admit of no exception.”

“We should still expect to discover many unknown simple bodies; for example, those similar to aluminum and silicon, elements with atomic weights of 65 to 75.”

“I wish to establish some sort of system not guided by chance but by some sort of definite and exact principle .”

“Doctor, you have science, I have faith.”

“To burn oil!.. You can fuel with money as well.”

“In science we must all submit not to what seems to us attractive from one point of view or another, but to what represents an agreement between theory and experiment. Faraday Lecture, the Royal Institution, London (1889) as quoted by Leon Gray, The Basics of the Periodic Table”

“The Periodic Law of the Chemical Elements”

“principle of acidity”

“which supposedly entered into chemical reactions (such as combustion) but had no weight. It was a radical step, therefore, for Lavoisier to base a system of chemistry on a balance of weights and to maintain that chemistry is not concerned with weightless”

“..when they perceive that a body which was before manifest to the senses has escaped and disappeared, they should not admit or liquidate the account before it has been shown to them where the body has gone to and into what it has been received.”

“We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; an equal quantity of matter exists both before and after the experiment; the quality and quantity of the elements remain precisely the same; and nothing takes place beyond changes and modifications in the combination of these elements. Upon this principle the whole art of performing chemical experiments depends: We must always suppose an exact equality between the elements of the body examined and those of the products of its analysis. p. 226”

“We must trust to nothing but facts : These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation. pp. xviii”

“It is a maxim universally admitted in geometry, and indeed in every branch of knowledge, that , in the progress of investigation, we should proceed from known facts to what is unknown. ...In this manner , from a series of sensations, observations, and analyses, a successive train of ideas arises, so linked together, that an attentive observer may trace back to a certain point the order and connection of the whole sum of human knowledge. pp. xv”

“Thus, while I thought myself employed only in forming a Nomenclature, and while I proposed to myself nothing more than to improve the chemical language, my work transformed itself by degrees, without my being able to prevent it, into a treatise upon the Elements of Chemistry. p.xiv”

“We think only through the medium of words.”

“Here, then: a revolution [in science and chemistry] has taken place in an important part of human knowledge since your departure from Europe... I will consider this revolution to be well advanced and even completely accomplished if you range yourself with us. ...After having brought you up to date on what is happening in chemistry, it would be well to speak to you about our political revolution. We regard it as done and without any possibility of return to the old order. Letter to Benjamin Franklin (Feb 2, 1790) as quoted by I. Bernard Cohen , Revolution in Science”

“The Chain of Reason versus the Chain of Thumbs”