“Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.”

— Louis Pasteur, Discours de réception de Louis Pasteur (27 April 1882)

About Louis Pasteur

1822 – 1895

French chemist and microbiologist who developed pasteurization and helped establish the germ theory of disease.

“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”

“In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind.”

“There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“Any artist should be grateful for a naïve grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately.”

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”

“It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.”

“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”