Home › Authors › Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy Quotes
1778–1829 England
Sir Humphry Davy (17 December, 1778 – 29 May, 1829), often incorrectly spelled Humphrey, was a Cornish chemist who discovered several chemical elements and studied the human body's response to electricity. He is generally credited with inventing the Miners' Safety Lamp, although George Stephenson also claimed the invention.
England Academics Chemists Poets Random Humphry Davy quote
8 quotes
The true chemical philosopher sees good in all the diversified forms of the external world.
A sacred spark created by his breath,
Written After Recovery from a Dangerous Illness (1801)
The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance; the more we feel how much remains unknown; and in philosophy, the sentiment of the Macedonian hero can never apply, — there are always new worlds to conquer.
Every new discovery may be considered as a new species of manufacture, awakening moral industry and sagacity, and employing, as it were, new capital of mind.
Fortunately science, like that nature to which it belongs, is neither limited by time nor by space. It belongs to the world, and is of no country and of no age. The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance; the more we feel how much remains unknown; and in philosophy, the sentiment of the Macedonian hero can never apply, — there are always new worlds to conquer.
The only processes which can be called chemical, known to the civilized nations of antiquity, belonged to certain arts, such as metallurgy, dyeing, and the manufacture of glass or porcelain; but these processes appear to have been independent of each other, pursued in the workshop alone, and unconnected with general knowledge.
Historical View of the Progress of Chemistry (1812)
I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, nor fancy; but, if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing.
Attributed
Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer.
Attributed
Topics Humphry Davy is quoted on
Works