Louis Pasteur Quotes

Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him.

The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.

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.

To know how to wonder and question is the first step of the mind toward discovery.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.

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

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.

Imagination should give wings to our thoughts but we always need decisive experimental proof, and when the moment comes to draw conclusions and to interpret the gathered observations, imagination must be checked and documented by the factual results of the experiment.

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.

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.

If you suppress laboratories, physical science will be stricken with barrenness and death.

These are the living springs of great thoughts and great actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite.

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.

The only thing that can bring joy is work.

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.

Virulence appears in a new light which cannot but be alarming to humanity; unless nature, in her evolution down the ages (an evolution which, as we now know, has been going on for millions, nay, hundreds of millions of years), has finally exhausted all the possibilities of producing virulent or contagious diseases - which does not seem very likely.

Whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren scepticism.

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

In good philosophy, the word cause ought to be reserved to the single Divine impulse that has formed the universe.