Humphry Davy Quotes

94 Sourced Quotes

Almost all great deeds arise from a plenitude of hope or desire. No man ever had genius who did not aim to execute more than he was able.

Humphry Davy
There is now before us a boundless prospect of novelty in science; a country unexplored, but noble and fertile in aspect; a land of promise in philosophy.

Humphry Davy
Insulated, striking, but unexplained facts in science, are to the philosopher what green branches and fruits in the ocean are to the mariner voyaging for discovery; they are omens of land, which, even though he himself should not have the felicity of attaining, he may yet indicate to others.

Humphry Davy
Doubt in physical research is highly salutary, and is always the parent of inquiry, and often of truth.

Humphry Davy
A man should be proud of his honours, not vain of them.

Humphry Davy
The more the phenomena of the universe are studied, the more distinct their connection appears, the more simple their causes, the more magnificent their design, and the more wonderful the wisdom and power of their author.

Humphry Davy
The man of true genius, who studies science in consequence of its applications, pointing out to himself a definite end, will make use of all the instruments of investigation which are necessary for his purposes: and in the search of discovery, he will rather pursue the plans of his own mind than be limited by the artificial divisions of language.

Humphry Davy
In any thing at all, perfection is finally attained, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

Humphry Davy
The most important part of the history of a man of science is necessarily recorded in his work.

Humphry Davy
The tropes and metaphors of the speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of corn, very pretty, but which did very much hurt to the corn.

Humphry Davy
Attraction, of whatever kind, tends, as it were, to produce rest - a sort of eternal sleep in Nature.

Humphry Davy
Mr. Dalton's permanent reputation will rest upon his having discovered a simple principle, universally applicable to the facts of chemistry - in fixing the proportions in which bodies combine, and thus laying the foundation for future labors... his merits in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy.

Humphry Davy
And by the influence of heat, light, and electrical powers, there is a constant series of changes [in animal and vegetal substances]; matter assumes new forms, the destruction of one order of beings tends to the conservation of another, solution and consolidation, decay and renovation, are connected, and whilst the parts of the system, continue in a state of fluctuation and change, the order and harmony of the whole remain unalterable.

Humphry Davy
The opinions which result from passion are as the impressions made by the waves upon the sand; what one tide produces, the next modifies or destroys.

Humphry Davy
There is nothing more difficult than a good definition, for it is scarcely possible to express, in a few words, the abstracted view of an infinite variety of facts.

Humphry Davy
The grandest as well as the most correct views are those that have been gained by minute observation, and by the application of all the more precise and accurate methods of science.

Humphry Davy
By observation, facts are distinctly and minutely impressed in the mind; by analogy, similar facts are connected ; by experiment, new facts are discovered ; and, in the progression of knowledge, observation, guided by analogy, leads to experiment, and analogy, confirmed by experiment, becomes scientific truth.

Humphry Davy
Cuvier had even in his address & manner the character of a superior Man, much general power & eloquence in conversation & great variety of information on scientific as well as popular subjects. I should say of him that he is the most distinguished man of talents I have ever known on the continent: but I doubt if He be entitled to the appellation of a Man of Genius.

Humphry Davy
By science calmed, over the peaceful soul,
Bright with eternal Wisdom's lucid ray,
Peace, meek of eye, extends her soft control,
And drives the puny Passions far away.

Humphry Davy
Have you ever thought... about whatever man builds, that all of man's industrial efforts, all his calculations and computations, all the nights spent over working draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity?

Humphry Davy
I will say a few words of the intellectual qualities necessary for discovery or for the advancement of the science. Amongst them patience, industry, and neatness in manipulation, and accuracy and minuteness in observing and registering the phenomena which occur, are essential. A steady hand and a quick eye are most useful auxiliaries.

Humphry Davy
Chemistry is that part of Natural Philosophy which relates to those intimate actions of bodies upon each other, by which their appearances are altered, and their individuality destroyed.

Humphry Davy
We cannot be too grateful for that wonderful constitution of the external universe, by which it is rendered an inexhaustible source of interest to the inexhaustible human mind.

Humphry Davy
In the early stages of discovery, the imagination is often dazzled by the brilliancy of the new facts, and trusts to weak or remote analogies.

Humphry Davy
Discoveries are like blessings of heaven, permanent and universal, applying to all ages and all conditions of society.

Humphry Davy
I have come to [the] conclusion... that water is the basis of all the gases, and that oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, ammonia, nitrous acid, &c., are merely electrical forms of water..

Humphry Davy
Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded.

Humphry Davy
The progression of physical science is much more connected with your prosperity than is usually imagined. You owe to experimental philosophy some of the most important and peculiar of your advantages. It is not by foreign conquests chiefly that you are become great, but by a conquest of nature in your own country.

Humphry Davy
Gay-Lussac was quick, lively, ingenious and profound, with great activity of mind and great facility of manipulation. I should place him at the head of all the living chemists in France.

Humphry Davy
But if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of the men of science soften the asperities of national hostility. Davy's remarks to Thomas Poole on accepting Napoleon's prize for the best experiment on Galvanism.

Humphry Davy