Louis Pasteur Quotes

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After death, life reappears in a different form and with different laws. It is inscribed in the laws of the permanance of life on the surface of the earth and everything that has been a plant and an animal will be destroyed and transformed into a gaseous, volatile and mineral substance.

Louis Pasteur
Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according to the spatial characteristic of its form. The distinction is between those substances that have a plane of symmetry and those that do not. The former belong to the mineral, the latter to the living world.

Louis Pasteur
Little tolerant of frivolous or prejudiced contradiction, contemptuous of that ignorant criticism which doubts on principle, I welcome with open arms the militant attack which has a method in doubting and whose rule of conduct has the motto "More light."

Louis Pasteur
Wine may well be considered the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.

Louis Pasteur
If I have sometimes disturbed the peace of our Academic meetings by somewhat too lively discussions, it is because I have passionately defended the truth.

Louis Pasteur
He who proclaims the existence of the infinite - and no one can escape from it - accumulates in this affirmation more of the supernatural than exists in all the miracles of all religions.

Louis Pasteur
Science proceeds by successive answers to questions more and more subtle, coming nearer and nearer to the very essence of phenomena.

Louis Pasteur
Where are the real sources of human dignity, freedom and modern democracy, if not in the concept of infinity to which all men are equal?

Louis Pasteur
You bring me the deepest joy that can be felt by a man whose invincible belief is that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will unite, not to destroy, but to build, and that the future will belong to those who will have done most for suffering humanity.

Louis Pasteur
Science should not concern itself in any way with the philosophical consequences of its discoveries.

Louis Pasteur
One does not ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says: You suffer, that is enough for me...

Louis Pasteur
All things are hidden, obscure and debatable if the cause of the phenomena be unknown, but everything is clear if this cause be known.

Louis Pasteur
The characteristic of a true theory is its fruitfulness.

Louis Pasteur
The artificial products do not have any molecular dissymmetry; and I could not indicate the existence of a more profound separation between the products born under the influence of life and all the others.

Louis Pasteur
I beseech you to take interest in these sacred domains so expressively called laboratories. Ask that there be more and that they be adorned for these are the temples of the future, wealth and well-being. It is here that humanity will grow, strengthen and improve. Here, humanity will learn to read progress and individual harmony in the works of nature, while humanity's own works are all too often those of barbarism, fanaticism and destruction.

Louis Pasteur
If science has no country, the scientist should have one, and ascribe to it the influence which his works may have in this world.

Louis Pasteur
In our century, science is the soul of the prosperity of nations and the living source of progress. Undoubtedly, the tiring daily discussions of politics seem to be our guide. Empty appearances! - What really leads us forward are a few scientific discoveries and their applications.

Louis Pasteur
Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.

Louis Pasteur
Time is the best appraiser of scientific work, and I am aware that an industrial discovery rarely produces all its fruit in the hands of its first inventor.

Louis Pasteur
If it is a terrifying thought that life is at the mercy of the multiplication of these minute bodies [microbes], it is a consoling hope that Science will not always remain powerless before such enemies...

Louis Pasteur
When I am in my laboratory...! begin by shutting the door on materialism and on spiritualism; I observe facts alone; I seek but the scientific conditions under which life manifests itself.

Louis Pasteur
I could never work for money, but I would always work for science.

Louis Pasteur
God grant that by my persevering labours I may bring a little stone to the frail and ill-assured edifice of our knowledge of those deep mysteries of Life and Death where all our intellects have so lamentably failed.

Louis Pasteur
To prove that, until this very day, life has never been shown to man as a product of the forces that govern matter, it could be useful the spiritual doctrine which has been very neglected elsewhere, but always finds at least a glorious refuge in your groups. Perhaps you know that in this difficult question concerning the origin of the infinitesimal, I will have brought experimental rigor that has grown weary of contradiction. Referring to the merit, however, we have inherited severe rules of the method from the great experimenters: Galileo, Pascal, Newton and their followers for two centuries.

Louis Pasteur
Though one discovery always surpasses another, and though the chemical and physical knowledge accumulated since his time has gone beyond all Lavoisier's dreams, his work, like that of Newton and a few other rare spirits, will remain ever young. Certain details will age, as do the fashions of another time, but the foundation, the method, constitute one of those great aspects of the human mind, the majesty of which is only increased by years.

Louis Pasteur