LOUIS PASTEUR

Fortune favors the prepared mind.

The universe is asymmetric and I am persuaded that life, as it is known to us, is a direct result of the asymmetry of the universe or of its indirect consequences. The universe is asymmetric.

Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are science and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit of the tree which bears it.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

One must work; one must work. I have done what I could.

Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.

Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.

When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.

The universe is asymmetric and I am persuaded that life, as it is known to us, is a direct result of the asymmetry of the universe or of its indirect consequences.

There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.

Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity.

One does not ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says: You suffer, that is enough for me...

Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy.

To know how to wonder and question is the first step of the mind toward discovery.

... by chance you will say, but chance only favors the mind which is prepared.

I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner.

In good philosophy, the word cause ought to be reserved to the single Divine impulse that has formed the universe.

No, there is now no circumstance known in which it can be affirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves. Those who affirm it have been duped by illusions, by ill-conducted experiments, spoilt by errors that they either did not perceive or did not know how to avoid.

In the fields of observation chance favors only those minds which are prepared.

If it is a terrifying thought that life is at the mercy of the multiplication of these minute bodies [microbes], it is a consoling hope that Science will not always remain powerless before such enemies.

These are the living springs of great thoughts and great actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite.