German Scientist Quotes

Everybody is pathological to a certain degree...the more so the elevated his standing...only myth and cliche have that a person must be either sane or crazy.

Paul Julius Möbius

Parasitism, mutualism, lichenism, etc., are each special cases of that one general association for which the term symbiosis is proposed as the collective name.

Heinrich Anton de Bary

Just as in Christian countries there is a catechism of morals, which everyone knows by heart, but which no one considers it his duty to follow, or expects to see followed by others - so zoology also has its dogmas, which are just as generally professed as they are denied in practice.

Developmental mechanics...is the doctrine of the causes of organic forms.

Much testing; accuracy and precision in experiment; no guesswork or self-deception.

When we are confronted with facts which we see no possibility of understanding save on a single hypothesis, even though it be an undemonstratable one, we are naturally led to accept the hypothesis, at least until a better one can be found.

August Weismann

There prevails here [Charleston] a finer manner of life, and on the whole, there are more evidences of courtesy than in the northern cities.

Johann David Schoepf

It will rightly be asked: What is the synthetic principle on which this obviously highly important product of y-methylcyclopentenophenanthrene is built up in nature, and why is it that this particular type which, as founda tion of many substances indispensable to life and of extreme physiological and biological importance, plays such a vital role in the vegetable and animal kingdoms? However, the time has not yet come when we can give an answer to questions so fundamental and so important to an understanding of the workings of Nature. But I am firmly convinced that this problem - like all others - will eventually be solved.

They [Kekule and Zincke] found, as the result of their research, that Kegnault's statements were perfectly correct, and that chloracetene possessed, besides other remarkable properties, that of non-existence!

Carl Schorlemmer

I consider the teaching and study of the historical development of science as indispensable... Our textbooks fail in this respect.

Richard Willstätter

Nitrogen bacteria teach us that Nature, with her sophisticated forms of the chemistry of living matter, still understands and utilizes methods, which we do not as yet know how to imitate.

Ladies and gentlemen, throughout my lecture I have presented to you nothing but speculation.

Günter Wächtershäuser

Chemical research and mountaineering have much in common. If the goal or the summit is to be reached, both initiative and determination as well as perseverance are required. But after the hard work it is a great joy to be at the goal or the peak with its splendid panorama.

I have fortunately been proved wrong in that prediction demonstrates how far I underestimated that as science progressively developed and as its nature and attributes became more and more familiar, mankind's appreciation and acceptance of scientific progress has steadily accelerated.

Wilhelm Ostwald

Only after the atom has lost the last sensible quality does its true meaning for the physical world view become clear; the unity — real, though remote from our immediate perception — of all that our perception knows only as a multitude of appearances is systematically held together and symbolically represented in it, but not mechanically explained.

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

The number of known metals had been increased by one — from 17 to 18.... A few years ago we thrilled to hear of the discovery of the final planet by Sir William Herschel. He calls the new member of our solar system Uranus. I propose to borrow from the honor of that great discovery and call this new element Uranium.

Martin Heinrich Klaproth

To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.

Ernst Otto Fischer

As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.

Emil Fischer represents a symbol of Germany's greatness.

Chlorine is a poisonous gas. In case I should fall over unconscious in the following demonstration involving chlorine, please pick me up and carry me into the open air. Should this happen, the lecture for the day will be concluded.

Before delivering your lectures, the manuscript should be in such a perfect form that, if need be, it could be set in type. Whether you follow the manuscript during the delivery of the lecture is purely incidental. The essential point is that you are thus master of the subject matter.

Research workers were, at one time, obliged to endeavor to ensure that their theories did not contradict those of the Church, nowadays, in contrast, the Church is at pains to prove that its teachings are compatible with those of Science. In other words, the Church acknowledges Science as the higher authority.

Wolfgang Ostwald

As soon as you know a man to be blind, you imagine that you can see it from his back.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

At the moment I am occupied by an investigation with Kirchhoff which does not allow us to sleep. Kirchhoff has made a totally unexpected discovery, inasmuch as he has found out the cause for the dark lines in the solar spectrum and can produce these lines artificially intensified both in the solar spectrum...

It is difficult, however, for a person to be comprehensible and at the same time remain scientific, so I must ask you to bear with me.