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)
Philosophy asks why; science provides the how.
In old age, I see the unity of all things energetic.
Jokes in science remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.
The atom's dance is the universe's symphony.
Wisdom is the equilibrium achieved after many oscillations.
Chemistry's gift to humanity is the power to create from the void.
As I near the end, I affirm: energy persists beyond the form.
Science is the systematic description of experience.
The task of science is to reduce all phenomena to a single principle.
The scientific method is the only way to gain reliable knowledge.
All natural phenomena can be understood as transformations of energy.
The law of conservation of energy is the most fundamental law of nature.
Catalysis is the acceleration of a chemical reaction by a substance that is not consumed in the reaction.
The history of science is the history of the human mind.
The most important discoveries are often made by accident.
The true scientist is a perpetual student.
The purpose of science is not to explain, but to describe.
The atom is a hypothesis, not a fact.
Energetics is the science of energy and its transformations.
The progress of science depends on the free exchange of ideas.
Contemporaries of Wilhelm Ostwald
Other Chemistrys born within 50 years of Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932).