Justus von Liebig Quotes

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The success of an experiment, or of a process, depends far less upon mechanical skill, than knowledge. Failure is the result of ignorance, and discoveries are made, not by manual dexterity, but by skill in combination, and by that intellectual power which creates new thoughts.

Justus von Liebig
Science is the organized attempt of mankind to discover how things work as causal systems.

Justus von Liebig
The business of science is to seek for causes, and like a light, to illuminate the surrounding darkness.

Justus von Liebig
For all great discoveries chemists are indebted to the "balance" — that incomparable instrument which gives permanence to every observation, dispels all ambiguity, establishes truth, detects error, and guides us in the true path of inductive science.

Justus von Liebig
Numberless germs of intellectual life fill the universe, but it is only in a few rare minds that these germs find a soil in which they can be developed. In these chosen minds the idea, whose origin is unknown, shows its vitality in creative acts; in them, the mysterious laws of nature assume a form, efficient, active, and recognisable by all.

Justus von Liebig
Without the power of observation, without judgment, without sagacity, all mathematical knowledge is useless.

Justus von Liebig
The chemist, by his questions, compels a mineral to speak, to disclose its composition; it tells him that it contains sulphur, iron, chromium, silica, alumina, or any other word of the chemical language of phenomena, arranged in a certain order. This is CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.

Justus von Liebig
It is not everyone who is called by his situation in life to assist in extending the bounds of science; but all mankind have a claim to the blessings and benefits which accrue from its earnest cultivation.

Justus von Liebig
Science renders the powers of nature the servants of man, whilst empiricism subjects man to their service.

Justus von Liebig
Every theory which urges men to labour and research, which excites acuteness and sustains perseverance, is a gain to science; for it is labour and research which lead to discoveries.

Justus von Liebig
I would more readily believe that a book on chemistry or on botany could grow out of dead matter by chemical processes.

Justus von Liebig
The study of Chemistry is profitable, not only inasmuch as it promotes the material interests of mankind, but also because it furnishes us with insight into those wonders of creation which immediately surround us, and with which our existence, life, and development, are most closely connected.

Justus von Liebig
Error is transient; truth alone is eternal. Error is only the shadow cast by truth, when its rays are arrested on their path by human ignorance and intellectual opacity.

Justus von Liebig
Many well-informed people still regard chemistry as the art of making experiments according to certain rules, very useful in the manufacture of soda and soap, in fixing good and permanent colours upon silk and cotton fabrics; but as an investigation of nature, or as an universal guide to its study, it is to most persons altogether unknown.

Justus von Liebig
A hundred-weight of error will not form one grain of truth.

Justus von Liebig
When in the dark province of organic nature, we succeed in finding a light point, appearing to be one of those inlets whereby we may attain to the examination and investigation of this province, then we have reason to congratulate ourselves, although conscious that the object before us is unexhausted.

Justus von Liebig
If we do not succeed in discovering causes by our researches, we have no right to create them by the imagination.

Justus von Liebig
The man who only sees with his eyes an object before him, has no claim to the title of an observer, which is reserved for him only who takes notice of the different parts of the object, and sees the connection between the parts and the whole.

Justus von Liebig
The attaching too high a value to the mere facts is often a sign of want of ideas. It is not fertility, but poverty, of ideas which clothes itself with a mass of coverings of all sorts, or wears old, tattered, -threadbare, and ill-fitting garments.

Justus von Liebig
As the human mind advances in knowledge, from whatever source that knowledge may be derived, all its powers are strengthened and elevated. The acquisition of a new truth is equivalent to a new sense, enabling us now to perceive and recognise innumerable phenomena which remain invisible or concealed to others, as they formerly were to ourselves.

Justus von Liebig
It is no exaggeration to say, we may judge, with great accuracy, of the chemical prosperity of a country from the amount of sulphuric acid it consumes. In this point of view there is no manufacture worthy of greater attention on the part of the government.

Justus von Liebig
Facts are like grains of sand which are moved by the wind, but principles are these same grains cemented into rocks.

Justus von Liebig
Chemistry is so often alluded to in modem writings, that it may perhaps be regarded as a problem of some importance to indicate more specially the influence of this science on the useful arts and on industry, as well as its relations to agriculture, physiology, and medicine.

Justus von Liebig
The true philosopher always seeks to explain and illustrate the facts of nature by creating phenomena; that is, by experiments, the devising and discovery of which is his task, and by which he causes the object of his investigation to speak, as it were, intelligibly to him.

Justus von Liebig
The difficulty of explaining the facts ought not at once to deter us from investigating them in all their bearings, and ascertaining the extent of their influence.

Justus von Liebig
When a power of nature, invisible and impalpable, is the subject of scientific inquiry, it is necessary, if we would comprehend its essence and properties, to study its manifestations and effects. For this purpose simple observation is insufficient, since error always lies on the surface, whilst truth must be sought in deeper regions.

Justus von Liebig
It is, unquestionably, worthy of a nation - a great nation - to send out travellers for the purpose of increasing our knowledge of distant and unexplored regions, and to make us acquainted with the plants and animals inhabiting them, and even to make great sacrifices in fitting out expeditions for these important objects.

Justus von Liebig
However numerous our observations may be, yet, if they only bear on one side of a question, they will never enable us to penetrate the essence of a natural phenomenon in its full significance.

Justus von Liebig
Facts by the million cannot be bequeathed; but scientific principles which are expressions for these facts, may be so, because they are immutable in their nature.

Justus von Liebig
The literary man and the statesman have not been impressed, in the course of their early studies, with the principles indispensable to the successful study of nature.

Justus von Liebig