19th-century Scientist Quotes

Albert Einstein

Marie Curie

Louis Pasteur

Alexander Graham Bell

Niels Bohr

Max Planck

Michael Faraday

A great discovery does not leap completely achieved from the brain of the scientist, as Minerva sprang, all panoplied, from the head of Jupiter; it is the fruit of accumulated preliminary work.

Science should not concern itself in any way with the philosophical consequences of its discoveries.

Find out what an odor is - whether it is an emanation and therefore subject to being weighed, or a vibration and therefore capable of being reflected. Odors are becoming more and more important in the worlds of scientific experiments and in medicine - and the need of more knowledge will bring forth more knowledge, as sure as the sun shines.

Alexander Graham Bell

It can even be thought that radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature, whether it is ready to profit from it or whether this knowledge will not be harmful for it.

I fully agree with you concerning the pseudo-science of astrology. The interesting point is that this kind of superstition is so tenacious that it could persist through so many centuries.

Albert Einstein

To serve in the scientific army, to have shown some initiative, and to be rewarded by the consciousness that in the eyes of his comrades he bears the accredited accolade of successful endeavor, is enough to satisfy the legitimate ambition of every earnest student of nature.

I believe that the advent of modern science is the most important social event in all history.

Karl Taylor Compton

Mathematical physics represents the purest image that the view of nature may generate in the human mind; this image presents all the character of the product of art; it begets some unity, it is true and has the quality of sublimity; this image is to physical nature what music is to the thousand noises of which the air is full...

Théophile de Donder

How quick are we to learn, that is, to imitate what others have done or thought before. And how slow to understand, that is, to see the deeper connections. Slowest of all, however, are we in inventing new connections or even applying old ideas in a new field.

So long as you live and in whatever circumstances the kaleidoscope of life may place you, think for yourself and act in accordance with the conclusions of that thinking; avoid so far as possible drifting with the current of the mob or being too easily influenced by the outward manifestation of things. Take your own look beneath the surface and don't trust others to look for you. If you will follow this rule consistently, I am sure you will keep out of much trouble, will make the most out of your life and, what is more, will contribute most of value to the community life.

Frank B. Jewett

The whole history of physics proves that a new discovery is quite likely lurking in the next decimal place.

Floyd K. Richtmyer

The twofold nature of light as a light-wave and as a light-quantum is thus extended to electrons and, further, to atoms: their wave-nature is asserting itself more and more, theoretically and experimentally, as concurrent with their corpuscular nature.

Arnold Sommerfeld

My whole existence has been devoted to science and to teaching, and these two intense passions have brought me very great joy.

A simple calculation shows that from the classical theory follows that we should find a broadening of the beam with the maximum intensity on the place of the beam without field. However, from the quantum theory follows that we should find there no intensity at all, and deflected molecules on both sides. The beam should split up in two beams corresponding to the two orientations of the magnet. The experiment decided in favor of the quantum theory.

To get information for myself and for others direct from nature gives me so much more satisfaction than to be always learning it from others and for myself alone.

A scientific man, in so far as he influences the progress of science cannot be far ahead of his time, and though his writings may be read and admired centuries after his death, he will have written in vain if he has not been appreciated by his contemporaries or by those who immediately followed.

Arthur Schuster

Although many of the artifices employed in the works before mentioned are remarkable for their elegance, it is easy to see they are adapted only to particular objects, and that some general method, capable of being employed in every case, is still wanting.

The seemingly useless or trivial observation made by one worker leads on to a useful observation by another; and so science advances, "creeping on from point to point."

Silvanus P. Thompson

A patent is a legal analog of sticky fly paper: it attracts some of the lowest forms of life.

David L. Webster

If our world is not "the best of all possible worlds" it certainly is the only one in which it is possible to avoid the dilemma of discontinuity.

When the teacher has once obtained the mastery over the experiments he will never after be willing to teach without them; for, as an honest teacher, he will know that he cannot teach without them.

Alfred M. Mayer

To regard analogy as an aid to the invention of theories is as absurd as to regard melody as an aid to the composition of sonatas.

Norman Robert Campbell

I thank God humbly and sincerely. God, who has visited us with many trials, and led us like the Israelites of old from place to place without any certain abode, bless, we beseech Thee, our return home, and mercifully grant that the afflictions and anxieties of that long probation may bear fruit in a more self-denying and godly life ; and that we may have our hearts fixed on a yet more abiding resting-place, eternal in the heavens, for Jesus Christ's sake.'

James David Forbes

There are two kinds of physicists in Berlin: on the one hand was Einstein, and on the other all the rest.

Rudolf Ladenburg

The forerunners in the march of science do not often come heralded by much ceremony suggestive of the power that lies behind them. Often in apparent trivialities do they reveal themselves — trivialities so void of spectacular content that but few can be found who deem it worth while to listen to their story.

William Francis Gray Swann