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)
Wisdom comes from observing the subtle changes in the world around us.
Science without philosophy is blind; philosophy without science is empty.
The laboratory is the true temple of humanity.
Energy flows where attention goes, in atoms and in souls.
A good experiment is worth a thousand speculations.
Art and science are twins in the pursuit of harmony.
The future of chemistry lies in the hands of the young and curious.
Laughter is the best solvent for the stresses of research.
Politics, like reactions, requires catalysts to change course.
The soul of science is curiosity, unquenched and eternal.
In the silence of the lab, truths whisper their secrets.
Color theory reveals the poetry hidden in physics.
True knowledge is the recognition of our ignorance.
Chemistry binds the world in invisible chains of affinity.
Life is an equation we solve one reaction at a time.
The wit of a scientist lies in seeing the absurd in the profound.
Energetics unifies the disparate realms of physics and biology.
Peace in the world starts with balance in the elements.
Every failure in the lab is a step toward success.
The canvas of reality is painted with chemical brushes.
Contemporaries of Wilhelm Ostwald
Other Chemistrys born within 50 years of Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932).