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Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument. The native intellectual powers of men in different times are not so much the causes of the different success of their labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and artificial resources in their possession.

Humphry Davy

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Humphry Davy
Age: 50 †
Born: 1778
Born: December 17
Died: 1829
Died: May 30
Chemist
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Sir Humphy Davy
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More quotes by Humphry Davy

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Experimental science hardly ever affords us more than approximations to the truth and whenever many agents are concerned we are in great danger of being mistaken.
Humphry Davy
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James Watt was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and chemist his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius - the union of them for practical application.
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When two elements combine and form more than one compound, the masses of one element that react with a fixed mass of the other are in the ratio of small whole numbers.
Humphry Davy
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Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument.
Humphry Davy
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We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive.
Humphry Davy
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The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by failures.
Humphry Davy
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Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.
Humphry Davy
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By science calmed, over the peaceful soul, Bright with eternal Wisdom's lucid ray, Peace, meek of eye, extends her soft control, And drives the puny Passions far away.
Humphry Davy
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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 no age. The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance the more we feel how much remains unknown.
Humphry Davy
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The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly have, since the time of the Greek poets, been applied to typify the human being,--its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination.
Humphry Davy
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Consistency in opinion is the slow poison of intellectual life, the destroyer of its vividness and energy.
Humphry Davy
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The art galleries of Paris contain the finest collection of frames I ever saw.
Humphry Davy
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It must always be borne in mind that the assumption of woman's social superiority lies at the root of these rules of conduct.
Humphry Davy
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Gay-Lussac was quick, lively, ingenious and profound, with great activity of mind and great facility of manipulation. I should place him at the head of all the living chemists in France.
Humphry Davy
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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.
Humphry Davy
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There may be beings, thinking beings, near or surrounding us, which we do not perceive, which we cannot imagine. We know very little but, in my opinion, we know enough to hope for the immortality, the individual immortality, of the better part of man.
Humphry Davy
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Mr. Dalton's permanent reputation will rest upon his having discovered a simple principle, universally applicable to the facts of chemistry - in fixing the proportions in which bodies combine, and thus laying the foundation for future labors... his merits in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy.
Humphry Davy
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The well-mannered man never puts out his hand in greeting until a lady extends hers. This is a test of good breeding that is constantly applied. ... The first move in the direction of cordiality must come from the lady, the whole code of behaviour being based on the assumption that she is the social superior.
Humphry Davy
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In the present state of our knowledge, it would be useless to attempt to speculate on the remote cause of the electrical energy... its relation to chemical affinity is, however, sufficiently evident. May it not be identical with it, and an essential property of matter?
Humphry Davy
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Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume 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.
Humphry Davy