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Humphry Davy Quotes
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In natural science there is one language universally intelligible, — the language of facts; it belongs to nature, and it is permanent as the objects of nature; it is the same to the citizen of Paris and of London.
Humphry Davy
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Man is formed for pure enjoyment; his duties are high, his destination is lofty; and he must, then, be most accused of ignorance and folly when he grovels in the dust, having wings which can carry him to the skies.
Humphry Davy
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The men who begin with speculation and end with facts, begin at the wrong end; the firmest materials should be in the foundations; the embellishments should be made after the structure is completed.
Humphry Davy
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Theories ought to be made for time, and be considered capable of improvement.
Humphry Davy
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In all cases in science, it is our business to analyse every principle, and to ascertain to what expressions of facts it relates, or to what simpler laws it may be referred. It is our duty to separate propositions from human passions, and to reason on them as mere representations of things.
Humphry Davy
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Human beings have been created for happiness, and a principal means of obtaining it is by the exercise of the intellectual faculties, by an exertion of reason and imagination, by imitating nature and modifying her operations. And knowledge is no less necessary to supply the wants of the mind than food is to support the functions of the body.
Humphry Davy
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In this advanced age of the world there ought to be no question concerning the importance of natural knowledge, of discoveries of the powers of nature, and of the wise laws by which they are governed.
Humphry Davy
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There will always be enigmas for us in nature as in philosophy, which will keep alive the faculty of research, and the active power of investigation. And it is much wiser to rejoice that something has been discovered, than to regret that so much is still concealed from us.
Humphry Davy
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To me there never has been a higher source of honour or distinction than that connected with advances in science. I have not possessed enough of the eagle in my character to make a direct flight to the loftiest altitudes in the social world; and I certainly never endeavored to reach those heights by using the creeping powers of the reptile, who in ascending, generally chooses the dirtiest path, because it is the easiest.
Humphry Davy
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Chemistry relates to those operations by which the intimate nature of bodies is changed, or by which they acquire new properties. This definition will not only apply to the effects of mixture, but to the phenomena of electricity, and in short to all the changes which do not merely depend upon the motion or division of masses of matter.
Humphry Davy
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Complexity almost always belongs to the early epochs of every science; and the grandest results are usually obtained by the most simple means.
Humphry Davy
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Upon all occasions, when I venture upon a conjecture, you will, I trust, have the goodness to consider it has brought forward, not as an opinion which it would be painful to relinquish, but as a hint which may lead to inquiry.
Humphry Davy
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Philosophy is simple and intelligible. We owe confused systems to men of vague and obscure ideas.
Humphry Davy
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To be attached to mere speculation is to be directed by a dream.
Humphry Davy
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The love of knowledge and of intellectual power is a faculty belonging to the human mind in every state of society; and it is one by which it is most justly characterized — one the most worthy of being cultivated and extended.
Humphry Davy
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Experimental science hardly ever affords us more than approximations to truth; and whenever many agents are concerned we are in great danger of being mistaken.
Humphry Davy
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My real, my working existence is among the objects of scientific research. Common amusements and enjoyments are necessary to me only as dreams to interrupt the flow of thoughts too nearly analogous to enlighten and vivify.
Humphry Davy
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The person who wishes to understand the higher departments of chemistry, or to pursue them in their most interesting relations to the economy of Nature, ought to be well-grounded in elementary mathematics; he will oftener have to refer to arithmetic than algebra, and to algebra than to geometry. But all these sciences lend their aid to chemistry.
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There are few persons who pursue science with true dignity; it is followed more as connected with objects of profit than those of fame, and there are fifty persons who take out patents for supposed inventions for one who makes a real discovery.
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Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
Humphry Davy
Creative Commons
Born:
December 17, 1778
Died:
May 29, 1829
(aged 50)
Bio:
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet was a Cornish chemist and inventor.
Most used words:
science
nature
mind
philosophy
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