In the philosophic sense, observation shows and experiment teaches.

The eloquence of a scientist is clarity; scientific truth is always more luminous when its beauty is unadorned than when it is tricked out in the embellishments with which our imagination would seek to clothe it.

The fact that knowledge endlessly recedes as the investigator is about to grasp it is what constitutes at the same time his torment and happiness.

Experiment is fundamentally only induced observation.

When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.

Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.

A fact in itself is nothing. It is valuable only for the idea attached to it, or for the proof which it furnishes.