Louis Pasteur Quotes

53 Sourced Quotes

In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur
Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.
On the inauguration of the Faculty of Science, University of Lille

Louis Pasteur
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

Louis Pasteur
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

Louis Pasteur
There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.

Louis Pasteur
There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are sciences and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit of the tree which bears it.

Louis Pasteur
Hypotheses come into our laboratories in armfuls, they fill our registers with projected experiments, they stimulate us to research - and that is all.

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
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
The characteristic of a true theory is its fruitfulness.

Louis Pasteur
Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of invention.

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
The arguments... by which you support my theories, are most ingenious, but not founded on demonstrated facts; analogy is no proof.

Louis Pasteur
To him who devotes his life to science nothing can give more happiness than increasing the number of discoveries, but his cup of joy is full when the results of his studies immediately find practical applications.

Louis Pasteur
I am the most hesitating of men, the most fearful of committing myself when I lack evidence. But on the contrary, no consideration can keep me from defending what I hold as true when I can rely on solid scientific evidence.

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
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
To bring one's self to believe in a truth that has just dawned upon one is the first step towards progress; to persuade others is the second.

Louis Pasteur
The universe is asymmetrical; for, if the whole of the bodies which compose the solar system moving with their individual movements were placed before a glass, the image in the glass could not be superimposed upon the reality.

Louis Pasteur
When moving forward toward the discovery of the unknown, the scientist is like a traveler who reaches higher and higher summits from which he sees in the distance new countries to explore.

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

Louis Pasteur
The recompense and the ambition of a scientist is to conquer the approbation of his peers and of the masters whom he venerates. It would seem to me that I was committing a theft if I were to let one day go by without doing some work.

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
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
A man of science should think of what will be said of him in the following century, not of the insults or the compliments of one day.

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

Louis Pasteur