11 quotes
Science is the real moral school; she teaches man the love and respect for the truth, without which all hope is chimerical.
The word truth can not be used outside of science without a misuse of terms.
Science... dominates all things, it alone is of any definite utility. No man, no institution shall henceforth have an enduring authority if they do not conform themselves to its precepts.
Science et Morale (1897)
Is there still a statesman who doubts the services greater still that may be expected from this incessant progress?
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
Science is the benefactor of humanity.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
There abides in nature a certain form of matter which, being discovered and brought by art to perfection, converts to itself, proportionally, all imperfect bodies that it touches. ...It rested on the indisputable appearance of an indefinite cycle of transformations, reproducing themselves in chemical operations, without either beginning or end.
Les Origines de l'Alkimie (1885)
In fact, what we are can only be attributed for a small part to our labour and personal individuality, because we owe it almost entirely to our forefathers, both of blood and mind.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
A new conception of human destiny results from a profound knowledge of the universe and the physical and moral constitution of man, directed by the fundamental notions of universal solidarity between all classes and all nations.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
Each one of us, whatever may have been his individual initiative, ought also to attribute a considerable portion of his success to his contemporaries who are working at the same time as himself at the great common task.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
Hence the rôle of savants, as individuals and as a social class, has unceasingly developed in modern states. But our duties towards other men increase in the same ratio, and let it never be forgotten; let it proclaimed in this hall, in this palace of French science.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)
Science carries its legitimate pretensions further. To-day it claims the material, intellectual, and moral direction of society. Under its impulse modern civilisation marches with an increasingly rapid stride.
Speech at M. Berthelot's Scientific Jubilee (1901)