Louis Pasteur Quotes & Sayings

Analogy cannot serve as proof. — Louis Pasteur

In the fields of observation chance favors only those minds which are prepared. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

To bring one's self to believe in a truth that has just dawned upon one is the first step towards progress; to persuade others is the second. — Louis Pasteur

There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are science and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit of the tree which bears it. — Louis Pasteur

Do not put forward anything that you cannot prove by experimentation. — Louis Pasteur

The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry. — Louis Pasteur

Outsidetheir laboratories, thephysicianand chemist are soldiers without arms on the field of battle. — Louis Pasteur

Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind — Louis Pasteur

Science brings men nearer to God. — Louis Pasteur

The grandeur of the acts of men are measured by the inspiration from which they spring. — Louis Pasteur

By chance you will say, but chance only favors the mind which is prepared. — Louis Pasteur

Fortune favors the prepared mind. — Louis Pasteur

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? — Louis Pasteur

Nothing is lost and nothing is created in the operations of art as those of nature. — Louis Pasteur

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

The 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 Pasteur

When I approach a child he inspires in me two sentiments tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become. — Louis Pasteur

Bernard was right. The germ is nothing, the terrain is everything. — Louis Pasteur

Chance favors only be prepared mind. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophers. — Louis Pasteur

A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world. — Louis Pasteur

Chance favours the trained mind. — Louis Pasteur

There is no such thing as applied science, only the application of pure science. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

You 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 Pasteur

Fortune favors the well-prepared. — Louis Pasteur

You have not succeeded in your experiments, that is all there is to it. — Louis Pasteur

Question your priorities often, make sure God always comes first. — Louis Pasteur

Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment. — Louis Pasteur

I give them experiments and they respond with speeches. — Louis Pasteur

In the realm of scientific observation, luck is granted only to those who are prepared. — Louis Pasteur

Whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren scepticism, do not let yourselves be discouraged by the sadness of certain hours which pass over nations. Live in the serene peace of laboratories and libraries. Say to yourselves first : ' What have I done for my instruction ? ' and , as you gradually advance, 'What have I done for my country?' until the time comes when you may have the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed in some way to the progress and to the good of humanity. But, whether our efforts are or not favoured by life, let us be able to say, when we come near the great goal, ' I have done what I could — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

If it is a terrifying thought that life is at the mercy of the multiplication of these minute bodies [microbes], it is a consoling hope that Science will not always remain powerless before such enemies ... — Louis Pasteur

These 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 Pasteur

Worship the spirit of criticism. — Louis Pasteur

Science 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 Pasteur

The universe is asymmetric. — Louis Pasteur

It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

Luck favors the mind that is prepared. — Louis Pasteur

The controls of life are structured as forms and nuclear arrangements, in a relation with the motions of the universe. — Louis Pasteur

The 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 Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

Do not promote what you can't explain, simplify, and prove early. — Louis Pasteur

The Ancients understood the omnipotence of the underside of things. — Louis Pasteur

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

Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages. — Louis Pasteur

Science belongs to no one country. — Louis Pasteur

It is a matter of fact; I approached without a preconceived idea, too ready to declare, if the experiment had imposed upon me the confession, that there was a spontaneous generation, of
which I am convinced today that those who assure it are blindfolded. — Louis Pasteur

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

It would seem to me that I was committing a theft if I were to let one day go by without doing some work. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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 — Louis Pasteur

One must not assume that an understanding of science is present in those who borrow the language — Louis Pasteur

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

What did you do today to receive your instruction? — Louis Pasteur

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 Pasteur

It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain. — Louis Pasteur

Chance favours the prepared mind. — Louis Pasteur

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

Change only favours minds that are diligently looking and preparing for discovery. — Louis Pasteur

The nights seem to me too long ... I am often scolded by Madame Pasteur, but I tell her I shall lead her to fame. — Louis Pasteur

The greatest malfunction of spirit is to believe things. — Louis Pasteur

Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism. — Louis Pasteur

When 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

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

The role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely great. — Louis Pasteur

Science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war. — Louis Pasteur

There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science. — Louis Pasteur

How 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 Pasteur

Happy is he who bears a god within. — Louis Pasteur

Could I but know all, I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman — Louis Pasteur

One must work; one must work. I have done what I could. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

My opinion - nay more, my conviction- is that, in the present state of science, as you rightly say, spontaneous generation is a chimera ; and it would be impossible for you to contradict
me, for my experiments all stand forth to prove that spontaneous generation is a chimera. — Louis Pasteur

Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy. — Louis Pasteur

If perchance you should falter during the journey, a hand would be there to support you. If that should be wanting, God, who alone could take that hand from you, would Himself accomplish its work. — Louis Pasteur

Live in the serene peace of laboratories and libraries — Louis Pasteur

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. — Louis Pasteur

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

Chance favors those who are prepared. — Louis Pasteur

When one works and imagines and dreams of nothing else than the search for answers that God has posed, it is difficult to be so still. — Louis Pasteur

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

There 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 Pasteur

Oh my goodness the mystery that has prompted my objective. My quality lies exclusively in my tirelessness. — Louis Pasteur

Science knows no country because it is the light that iluminates the world — Louis Pasteur

The greatest disorder of the mind is to let will direct it. — Louis Pasteur

I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner. — Louis Pasteur

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