Friedrich Wöhler

Organic chemistry is now so extensive that it is enough to drive one mad. It seems to me like a primeval forest full of the most wonderful things, a boundless and impenetrable jungle.

Berzelius's 'vital force' theory is like a ghost in the machine; it explains everything by explaining nothing.

The discovery of new elements is becoming so common that soon we shall have to invent new names for them, as the old ones are running out.

One might say that I have, in a manner of speaking, 'synthesized' life, or at least a significant part of its waste products.

My laboratory is a place where nature is forced to reveal her secrets, often with a good deal of persuasion from fire and acid.

To understand chemistry, one must not be afraid to get one's hands dirty, or at least, one's glassware.

Some chemists spend their lives proving what others have already discovered. I prefer to discover new things.

The vital force, it seems, is not so vital after all, if a mere chemist can conjure its products from inorganic matter.

If only nature would be so kind as to label her compounds clearly, our work would be much simpler, and far less exciting.

The greatest joy in chemistry is not in finding what you expect, but in finding what you never imagined.

I have often wondered if the alchemists, in their pursuit of gold, stumbled upon more interesting things without realizing it.

One must be careful not to confuse a hypothesis with a fact, especially when the hypothesis is one's own.

The more we learn about chemistry, the more we realize how little we truly know. It's a humbling, yet exhilarating, thought.

My experiments are often like a conversation with nature, where I ask a question with my reagents, and she answers with a precipitate or a gas.

To the vitalists, I offer my apologies for demonstrating that life's secrets are not always so mysterious.

The beauty of chemistry lies in its ability to transform the mundane into the marvelous, and sometimes, the dangerous.

If a theory cannot be disproven, it is not a scientific theory, but a dogma. And I have no patience for dogma in the laboratory.

I find that the best way to understand a substance is to try and break it apart, and then put it back together again.

Some chemists are like cooks, following recipes. I prefer to be a chef, creating new dishes from scratch.

The elements are like the letters of an alphabet; with them, we can write an infinite number of chemical stories.