Antoine Lavoisier

One succeeds in obtaining the truth much less by the force of argument than by the arrangement and the number of experiments.

The aim of chemistry is not to make gold, but to better understand the world.

The fermentation of must is nothing other than the decomposition of the sugar it contains into alcohol and carbonic acid.

The only way to rectify our reasoning is to make them as tangible as those of the mathematicians, so that we can find our error at a glance, and when there are disputes among persons, we can simply say: Let us calculate, without further ado, in order to see who is right.

The more one knows, the more one realizes how much remains to be known.

In nature, nothing is born, nothing dies.

The vital air (oxygen) which we have discovered is, from several points of view, the true combustible body.

A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a great truth.

The most beautiful discoveries are made not so much by men of genius as by men of observation.

The principle object of chemical experiments is to decompose natural bodies, so as separately to examine the different substances which enter into their composition.

It is a maxim of modern philosophy that nothing is known but by comparison.

The progress of the physical sciences depends in large part on the perfection of the instruments which are used to make observations.

One must not be more attached to one's own opinions than to truth.

The atmosphere is a vast chemical vessel in which a multitude of operations are continually taking place.

To conduct an experiment is to put a question to nature.

The republic has no need of scientists.