William Ramsay Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

But I am leaving the regions of fact, which are difficult to penetrate, but which bring in their train rich rewards, and entering the regions of speculation, where many roads lie open, but where a few lead to a definite goal.

William Ramsay
Progress is made by trial and failure; the failures are generally a hundred times more numerous than the successes ; yet they are usually left unchronicled.

William Ramsay
Nothing can be more certain than this: that we are just beginning to learn something of the wonders of the world on which we live and move and have our being.

William Ramsay
The country which is in advance of the rest of the world in chemistry will also be foremost in wealth and in general prosperity.

William Ramsay
Whosoever asks shall receive, but he must ask sensible questions in definite order, so that the answer to the first suggests a second, and the reply to the second suggests a third, and so on.

William Ramsay
To tell the story of the development of men's ideas regarding the nature of atmospheric air is in great part to write a history of chemistry and physics.

William Ramsay
There is a difference between discovery and invention. A discovery brings to light what existed before, but what was not known; an invention is the contrivance of something that did not exist before.

William Ramsay
No process is so perfect that there is not plenty of room for improvement. There is no finality in science. And that which today is a scientific toy may be to-morrow the essential part of an important industry.

William Ramsay
Like every other endeavor, the beginning is in small things. Any one who tries to look into anything with sufficient care will find something new. A drop of water; a grain of sand; an insect; a blade of grass; we know indeed little about them when all is told.

William Ramsay
The solving of conundrums has for many people a great attraction: Nature surrounds us with conundrums, and it is one of the greatest pleasures in life to attempt their solution.

William Ramsay
Speculation... has a deep fascination for many minds...

William Ramsay
I trust we have not wearied you in giving some account of our attempts to see the invisible, touch the intangible, and weigh the imponderable.

William Ramsay
The minds of most men, like their bodies, grow stiff with age and unreceptive of new impressions.

William Ramsay