Home / Quotes / Quote by Herman Boerhaave

Quote by Herman Boerhaave

“For chemistry is no science form'd à priori; 'tis no production of the human mind, framed by reasoning and deduction: it took its rise from a number of experiments casually made, without any expectation of what follow'd; and was only reduced into an art or system, by collecting and comparing the effects of such unpremeditated experiments, and observing the uniform tendency thereof. So far, then, as a number of experimenters agree to establish any undoubted truth; so far they may be consider'd as constituting the theory of chemistry.”

Author

Herman Boerhaave

Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch botanist and physician, born on December 31, 1668, and died on September 23, 1738. He made significant contributions to both botany and medicine, often referred to as 'the Avicenna of the Netherlands'. more

“For example, there are numbers of chemists who occupy themselves exclusively with the study of dyestuffs. They discover facts that are useful to scientific chemistry; but they do not rank as genuine scientific men. The genuine scientific chemist cares just as much to learn about erbium-the extreme rarity of which renders it commercially unimportant-as he does about iron. He is more eager to learn about erbium if the knowledge of it would do more to complete his conception of the Periodic Law, which expresses the mutual relations of the elements.”

Ifs Men Doe Facts Care Law Science Numbers Study Example Elements Relation Extremes Genuine Iron Mutual Conception Chemistry Unimportant Chemist Rarity

Author:Charles Sanders Peirce

“He [William Harvey] did not care for chymistrey, and was wont to speake against them with an undervalue.”

Care Science Chemistry Harvey

Author:John Aubrey

“I do not know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in this science worth reading.”

Knows Science Reading Chemistry Chemicals Worth Reading

Book:Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

Source: Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

“I have wished to see chemistry applied to domestic objects, to malting, for instance, brewing, making cider, to fermentation and distillation generally, to the making of bread, butter, cheese, soap, to the incubation of eggs, &c.”

Science Objects Bread Instance Eggs Chemistry Cheese Soap Brewing Cider Fermentation Incubation Distillation

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“I think chemistry is being frittered away by the hairsplitting of the organic chemists; we have new compounds discovered, which scarcely differ from the known ones and when discovered are valueless-very illustrations perhaps of their refinements in analysis, but very little aiding the progress of true science.”

Thinking Littles Science Differences Known Knowledge Progress Accounts Analysis Chemistry Compounds Illustration Refinement Chemist Valueless

Book:The letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836-1862: With notes, comments and references to contemporary letters

Source: The letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836-1862: With notes, comments and references to contemporary letters

“If materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the result of the chemical processes going on in my brain, they are determined by the laws of chemistry, not those of logic.”

Ifs Knows Seems Law Science Process Results Brain Opinion Logic Determined Materialism Chemistry Chemicals

Author:John B. S. Haldane

“In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.”

“In the arts of life main invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine. ... There is nothing in Man's industrial machinery but his greed and sloth: his heart is in his weapons.”

Men Heart Art Science Death Nature Produce Weapons Greed Chemistry Machinery Plague Famine Slaughter Sloth Pestilence

Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more

Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more

“It has been recognized that hydrogen bonds restrain protein molecules to their native configurations, and I believe that as the methods of structural chemistry are further applied to physiological problems it will be found that the significance of the hydrogen bond for physiology is greater than that of any other single structural feature.”

Source: The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals: An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry

“Mathematics is the cheapest science. Unlike physics or chemistry, it does not require any expensive equipment. All one needs for mathematics is a pencil and paper.”

Needs Doe Science Paper Mathematics Physics Mathematical Expensive Chemistry Mathematician Equipment Pencils Mathematics By Mathematicians Cheapness Paper And Pencil

Author:George Polya

Quote by Herman Boerhaave

Author

You May Also Like