Charles Richet - The Natural History of a Savant (1923)

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The future and the happiness of humanity depend on science.

Charles Richet
To neglect science is to exclude fair hope, to condemn ourselves to live in a uniform monotonous existence.

Charles Richet
Probably, what characterizes all scientists, whatever they may be, archivists, mathematicians, chemists, astronomists, physicists, is that they do not seek to reach a practical conclusion by their work.

Charles Richet
All... believe in the sovereignty of science; which like the grammar of Martine, rules even over kings, and imperiously subjects them to its laws.

Charles Richet
The aim of science is knowledge about phenomena.

Charles Richet
No one has the right to encumber science with premature assertions.

Charles Richet
Truth, the goddess, the sovereign, the all-powerful, who will freeze with terror those who jeer at her!

Charles Richet
One can only progress in the sciences — with the exception of Mathematics — at the price of great pecuniary sacrifice.

Charles Richet
I often recall to my students the history of Don Quixote, who, having constructed a helmet of cardboard and wood, wished to prove its solidity. Alas, the poor helmet flew to bits when his own good sword struck it. Then the knight, no whit discouraged, made a new and stronger helmet. He raised his sword.

Charles Richet
If you would discover a new truth, do not seek to know what use will be made of it.

Charles Richet
The gift for investigation appears at an early age: the demon of research speaks to men whilst they are still young.

Charles Richet
Understand this clearly; that the right method, even for obtaining a useful practical result, is not to worry about the practice, but to concentrate intensely on pure investigation, without being hampered by any parasitic considerations other than whatever conduces to greater facility for research.

Charles Richet
If the progress of chemistry consisted only in producing still more noxious gases capable of destroying a regiment in a few minutes, then chemistry would be an accursed science.

Charles Richet
All progress in science is progress in civilization, and consequently contributes to the welfare of man.

Charles Richet
Scientific doubt is a first-class quality, but rather eliminates piquancy from controversy.

Charles Richet
Nature guards her secrets jealously: it is necessary to lay violent siege to her for a long time to discover a single one of them, however small it be.

Charles Richet
Be as bold in the conception of hypotheses as rigorous in their demonstration.

Charles Richet
For the savant, Science must be a religion. Everything that is discovered, be it great or small, has its origin in this faith.

Charles Richet
In the history of science, nobody has left his mark on the world unless he has been, in this sense, an innovator.

Charles Richet
A chemist cannot find, already in his mind, the laws and the phenomena which govern matter.

Charles Richet