Wilhelm Ostwald
He made significant contributions to catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction velocities, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Most quoted
"All scientific work is incomplete — whether it be observational or experimental. All scientific work is liable to be upset or modified by advancing knowledge. That does not confer upon us a freedom to ignore the knowledge we already have, or to postpone the action that it appears to demand at a given time."
— from Essays
"The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes a flight in the thin air of imaginative generalization; and it again lands for renewed observation rendered acute by rational interpretation."
— from The Philosophy of Science
"The laws of thermodynamics control, in the last resort, the rise and fall of political systems, the freedom or bondage of nations, the movements of commerce and industry, the origins of wealth and poverty, and the general physical welfare of the human race."
— from Der energetische Imperativ, 1912
All quotes by Wilhelm Ostwald (387)
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
The greatest scientists are artists as well.
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
The only constant in life is change.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
The best revenge is massive success.
The chemical world is infinitely varied and the object of endless possibilities.
Catalysis is the acceleration of a chemical reaction by a substance which itself undergoes no permanent chemical change.
Energy is the only thing that makes sense.
Contemporaries of Wilhelm Ostwald
Other Chemistrys born within 50 years of Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932).