To demonstrate experimentally that a microscopic organism actually is the cause of a disease and the agent of contagion, I know no other way, in the present state of Science, than to subject the microbe (the new and happy term introduced by M. Sédillot) to the method of cultivation out of the body.
Louis PasteurThere is a time in every man's life when he looks to his God, when he looks at his life, when he wonders how he will be remembered.
Louis PasteurOne must not assume that an understanding of science is present in those who borrow the language
Louis PasteurIt would seem to me that I was committing a theft if I were to let one day go by without doing some work.
Louis PasteurThe grandeur of the acts of men are measured by the inspiration from which they spring.
Louis PasteurThere 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.
Louis PasteurThese 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.
Louis PasteurThese three things-work, will, success-fill human existences. Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy. Work passes these doors, and at the end of the journey success comes in to crown one's efforts.
Louis PasteurThe 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.
Louis PasteurScience 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 PasteurYou 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 PasteurThe controls of life are structured as forms and nuclear arrangements, in a relation with the motions of the universe.
Louis PasteurWhen I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.
Louis PasteurPosterity will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.
Louis PasteurScience advances through tentative answers to a series of more and more subtle questions which reach deeper and deeper into the essence of natural phenomena.
Louis PasteurThe 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.
Louis PasteurSince 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.
Louis PasteurThe Greeks bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language--the word 'enthusiasm'--en theos--a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within, and who obeys it.
Louis PasteurHow do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists to consider that life has existed during eternity, and not matter?
Louis PasteurThe nights seem to me too long... I am often scolded by Madame Pasteur, but I tell her I shall lead her to fame.
Louis PasteurNever will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.
Louis PasteurThe Greeks understood the mysterious power of the below things. They are the ones who gave us one of the most beautiful words in our language, the word enthusiasm.
Louis PasteurWhen you believe you have found an important scientific fact, and are feverishly curious to publish it, constrain yourself for days, weeks, years sometimes, fight yourself, try and ruin your own experiments, and only proclaim your discovery after having exhausted all contrary hypotheses. But when, after so many efforts you have at last arrived at a certainty, your joy is one of the greatest which can be felt by a human soul.
Louis Pasteur