Louis Pasteur Quotes

Louis Pasteur shares a hopeful, scientific voice that pushes curiosity about research and the future.

27 quotes

1. I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner.

2. Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.

3. 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.

4. L' univers est dissymetrique...

5. 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.

6. He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite, and none can avoid it - accumulates in that affirmation more of the supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of all the religions; for the notion of the Infinite presents that double character that forces itself upon us and yet is incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understanding we can but kneel ... I see everywhere the inevitable expression of the Infinite in the world; through it the supernatural is at the bottom of every heart. The idea of God is a form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the infinite weighs on human thought, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite, whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the pavement of these temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrated, annihilated by the thought of the Infinite.

7. Blessed is he who carries within himself a god and an ideal and who obeys it - an ideal of art, of science, or gospel virtues. Therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.

8. 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.

9. 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...

10. I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity.

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

12. Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.

13. It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.

14. Science brings men nearer to God.

15. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.

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

17. Nothing is lost and nothing is created in the operations of art as those of nature.

18. Whether our efforts are, or not, favored by life, let us be able to say, when we come near to the great goal, I have done what I could.

19. 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.

20. Science belongs to no one country.

21. Work usually follows will.

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

23. The universe is asymmetric and I am persuaded that life, as it is known to us, is a direct result of the asymmetry of the universe or of its indirect consequences. The universe is asymmetric. Acknowledging the role of molecules that have stereoisomers, some the mirror image of the others, and microorganisms whose chemistry prefers only one of those forms.

24. Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind.

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

26. In matters of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. (not literal translation) - Dan's les champs de observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.

27. 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.