Justus von Liebig

Chemistry German 1803 – 1873 341 quotes

He made significant contributions to agricultural and organic chemistry, developing fertilizers and improving analytical methods.

Quotes by Justus von Liebig

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

Attributed (often misattributed to Einstein, but Liebig's contemporaries held similar views)

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Attributed (similar sentiments expressed by Liebig in his discussions on the harmony of science and faith)

The greatest miracle is to understand the ordinary.

Attributed

Every discovery opens up new questions.

Various writings

The world is full of magic, waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

Attributed

To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.

Attributed (reflects a similar sentiment to William Blake, but Liebig's scientific observations often led to such profound insights)

The true scientist is a poet in disguise.

Attributed

Our task is to free ourselves from the prison of our own making.

Attributed

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Attributed (similar to J.B.S. Haldane, but Liebig's work often revealed the unexpected complexity of nature)

The greatest wisdom is to know oneself.

Attributed

We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.

Attributed

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.

Attributed (St. Augustine, but Liebig's extensive travels and scientific collaborations reflect this spirit)

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Attributed (Ralph Waldo Emerson, but aligns with Liebig's dedication to practical applications of science)

The most important and fundamental principle of agriculture is to restore to the soil the elements that have been removed by the crops.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology

The excrement of man, like that of animals, is a manure of the highest value, and it is a matter of astonishment that in the present day, when the most enlightened nations are engaged in the most active endeavours to improve their agriculture, no attempt is made to collect this most precious of all manures.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology 1840

The art of agriculture consists in the production of the greatest possible amount of food for man and animals from a given surface of land.

Familiar Letters on Chemistry

The atmosphere is the great magazine from which plants derive their carbon, and the soil is the source from which they obtain their nitrogen, phosphorus, and other inorganic constituents.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology 1840

The fertility of the soil is in direct proportion to the quantity of mineral constituents which it contains in a state capable of being assimilated by plants.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology

The true method of enriching a soil is to restore to it, in the form of manure, the elements which have been removed by the crops.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology

The entire system of agriculture, as it is at present conducted, is a system of spoliation.

Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology