Home / Authors / Humphry Davy

Humphry Davy Quotes

Chemist

Chemist, British scientist known for his contributions to electrochemistry. He discovered several elements, including sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chlorine, and proposed the concept of electrolytic decomposition.

Filter quotes by topic

All Science Men Mind Ifs May Natural Should Social Thinking Connected Country Discovery Facts Instruments Manners Matter Peculiar Philosopher Philosophy Profound

Famous Humphry Davy Quotes

“James Watt was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and chemist; his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius - the union of them for practical application.”

Natural Genius Unions Profound Philosopher Practicals Invention Characteristics Application Peculiar Distinguished Chemist James Watt

Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphrey Davy: Discourses delivered before the Royal Society. Elements of agricultural chemistry, pt. I

Source: The Collected Works of Sir Humphrey Davy: Discourses delivered before the Royal Society. Elements of agricultural chemistry, pt. I

“The progression of physical science is much more connected with your prosperity than is usually imagined. You owe to experimental philosophy some of the most important and peculiar of your advantages. It is not by foreign conquests chiefly that you are become great, but by a conquest of nature in your own country.”

Important Country Philosophy Science Advantage Prosperity Connected Experiments Peculiar Conquest Progression Physical Science

Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (etc.)

Source: The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (etc.)

“The beginning of civilisation is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts gives superiority to particular nations ... to subjugate other nations, who learn their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners;- so that in reality the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil society is founded in mechanical and chemical inventions.”

Source: Salmonia: or, Days of fly-fishing; in a series of conversations: with some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo. Consolation in travel, or, The last days of a philosopher

“Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument. The native intellectual powers of men in different times are not so much the causes of the different success of their labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and artificial resources in their possession.”

Men Mean Different Causes Intellectual Resources Tools Instruments Possession Native Labour Application Peculiar Artificial Advancement Different Times

Book:Elements of Chemical Philosophy

Source: Elements of Chemical Philosophy