Irving Langmuir Quotes

Science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.

Science is an international enterprise where discoveries in one part of the world are useful in other parts.

I am certain that our Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart will increasingly be an international meeting place open to scientists of all countries.

I really believe there are no borders for science.

I'm like Sergeant Schultz, I know nothing. We are trying to share ideas around the world. We don't just come up with a great idea in Brazil and ignore it in the rest of the world.

You can't take sides when you know the earth is round.

As scientists, we need to not be afraid of the truth.

Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth.

I love new places, new people, new ideas. I love cultural differences, and I'm fascinated by the truth - all the different versions of it.

Scientists under all forms of government must be able to participate fully in international efforts.

History, whether sacred or profane, hides her teaching from those who study her through coloured glasses. She only reveals truth to those who look through the cold clear medium of passionless inquiry, who seek the Truth without determining first the masquerade in which alone they will receive it.

Science extends an invitation to all nations.

The attempt to discover and promulgate the truth is nevertheless an obligation upon all scientists, one that must be persevered in no matter what the rebuffs—for otherwise what is the point in being a scientist?

Knowledge which ... transcends the bounds, the prejudices and pre-judgments of any one society and culture is not an illusion but, on the contrary, a glorious and luminous reality. Just how it was achieved remains subject to debate.

The technical work of scientists is blind to nationalities.

The reason why Silicon Valley is a worldwide innovation center is because it is a open culture that embraces diversity. You see people from all over the world. When you have many people from different backgrounds gathered together, that is where innovation comes from.

I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

So often has my judgment deceived me in my life, that I always suspect it, right or wrong,--at least I am seldom hot upon cold subjects. For all this, I reverence truth as much as any body; andif a man will but take me by the hand, and go quietly and search for itI'll go to the world's end with him:MBut I hate disputes.

I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my pursuit after Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.

Truth is simple, but Illusion makes it infinitely intricate. The person is rare who possesses an insatiable longing for Truth; the rest allow Illusion to bind them ever more and more.

Seeker of truth follow no path all paths lead where truth is here.

We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge.

For me science is not different from art, except in the one small, crucial detail that experiments speak their own truths, not ours.

Did the Almighty, holding in his right hand truth, and in his left hand search after truth, deign to proffer me the one I might prefer, in all humility, but without hesitation, I should request search after truth.