Louis Pasteur
Science belongs to no one country.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Science
As in the experimental sciences, truth cannot be distinguished from error as long as firm principles have not been established through the rigorous observation of facts.Collection: Science
These are the living springs of great thoughts and great actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite.Collection: Spring
The universe is an asymmetrical entity. I am inclined to believe that life as it is manifested to us must be a function of the asymmetry of the universe or of the consequence of this fact. The universe is asymmetrical; for if one placed the entire set of bodies that compose the solar system, each moving in its own way, before a mirror, the image shown would not be superimposable on the reality.Collection: Life
Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself it is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things, but, without it, everything is fallible; it always has the last word.Collection: Greatness
The nights seem to me too long... I am often scolded by Madame Pasteur, but I tell her I shall lead her to fame.Collection: Night
Chance favors those who are prepared.Collection: Wrestling
Chance favours a prepared mind.Collection: Mind
These microscopic organisms form an entire world composed of species, families and varieties whose history, which has barely begun to be written, is already fertile in prospects and findings of the highest importance. The names of these organisms are very numerous and will have to be defined and in part discarded. The word microbe which has the advantage of being shorter and carrying a more general meaning, and of having been approved by my illustrious friend, M. Littré, the most competent linguist in France, is one we will adopt.Collection: Science
You have not succeeded in your experiments, that is all there is to it.Collection: Experiments
In that memorable year, 1822: Oersted, a Danish physicist, held in his hands a piece of copper wire, joined by its extremities to the two poles of a Volta pile. On his table was a magnetized needle on its pivot, and he suddenly saw (by chance you will say, but chance only favours the mind which is prepared) the needle move and take up a position quite different from the one assigned to it by terrestrial magnetism. A wire carrying an electric current deviates a magnetized needle from its position. That, gentlemen, was the birth of the modern telegraph.Collection: Moving
There is no such thing as a special category of science called applied science; there is science and its applications, which are related to one another as the fruit is related to the tree that has borne it.Collection: Science
No, there is now no circumstance known in which it can be affirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves. Those who affirm it have been duped by illusions, by ill-conducted experiments, spoilt by errors that they either did not perceive or did not know how to avoid.Collection: Errors
The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman.Collection: Peasants
Since the most ancient times, all men, and particularly those who endeavored in the practice of medicine, have brought closer together two natural phenomena of capital importance: illness or fever and fermentation.Collection: Men
Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of invention. ... [Do not] share the opinion of those narrow minds who disdain everything in science which has not an immediate application. ... A theoretical discovery has but the merit of its existence: it awakens hope, and that is all. But let it be cultivated, let it grow, and you will see what it will become.Collection: Science
In the realm of scientific observation, luck is granted only to those who are prepared.Collection: Luck
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.Collection: Life
There is no such thing as applied science, only the application of pure science.Collection: Applied Science
Are the atoms of the dextroacid (tartaric) grouped in the spirals of a right-hand helix or situated at the angles of an irregular tetrahedron, or arranged in such or such particular unsymmetrical fashion? We are unable to reply to these questions. But there can be no reason for doubting that the grouping of the atoms has an unsymmetrical arrangement with a non-superimposable image. It is not less certain that the atoms of the laevo-acid realize precisely an unsymmetrical arrangement of the inverse of the above.Collection: Fashion
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.Collection: Life
We affirm the neutrality of Science ... Science is of no country. ... But if Science has no country, the scientist must keep in mind all that may work towards the glory of his country. In every great scientist will be found a great patriot.Collection: Country
I propose to provide proof... that just as always an alcoholic ferment, the yeast of beer, is found where sugar is converted into alcohol and carbonic acid, so always a special ferment, a lactic yeast, is found where sugar is transformed into lactic acid. And, furthermore, when any plastic nitrogenated substance is able to transform sugar into that acid, the reason is that it is a suitable nutrient for the growth of the [lactic] ferment.Collection: Beer
My present and most fixed opinion regarding the nature of alcoholic fermentation is this: The chemical act of fermentation is essentially a phenomenon correlative with a vital act, beginning and ending with the latter. I believe that there is never any alcoholic fermentation without their being simultaneously the organization, development, multiplication of the globules, or the pursued, continued life of globules which are already formed.Collection: Believe
Herrmann Pidoux and Armand Trousseau stated 'Disease exists within us, because of us, and through us', Pasteur did not entirely disagree, 'This is true for certain diseases', he wrote cautiously, only to add immediately: 'I do not think that it is true for all of them'.Collection: Truth
I have the faith of a Breton peasant and by the time I die I hope to have the faith of a Breton peasant's wife.Collection: Wife
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.Collection: Life
I give them experiments and they respond with speeches.Collection: Science
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.Collection: Goal
Live in the serene peace of laboratories and librariesCollection: Science
Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and obeys it.Collection: Positive
Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.Collection: Art
Do not put forward anything that you cannot prove by experimentation.Collection: Prove
Intuition is given only to him who has undergone long preparation to receive it.Collection: Long
Bernard was right. The germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.Collection: Germs
The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry.Collection: Wine
It would seem to me that I was committing a theft if I were to let one day go by without doing some work.Collection: One Day
Whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren scepticism.Collection: Careers
Chance favours the trained mind.Collection: Mind
Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy.Collection: Doors
Science knows no country because it is the light that iluminates the worldCollection: Country
The universe is asymmetric.Collection: Universe
The grandeur of the acts of men are measured by the inspiration from which they spring.Collection: Spring
Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of inventions.Collection: Practice
My strength lies solely in my tenacity.Collection: Lying
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?Collection: Real
Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War...Collection: War