Lavoisier Quotes

“The attempt of Lavoisier to reform chemical nomenclature is premature. One single experiment may destroy the whole filiation of his terms; and his string of sulphates, sulphites, and sulphures, may have served no end than to have retarded the progress of science by a jargon, from the confusion of which time will be requisite to extricate us.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“You have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavored to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove in my opinion that it is premature, insufficient and false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole, I think the new nomenclature will be rejected, after doing more harm than good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson: Writings

“Science would not be what it is if there had not been a Galileo, a Newton or a Lavoisier, any more than music would be what it is if Bach, Beethoven and Wagner had never lived. The world as we know it is the product of its geniuses—and there may be evil as well as beneficent genius—and to deny that fact, is to stultify all history, whether it be that of the intellectual or the economic world.”
― Norman Robert Campbell, What Is Science?

“The science of genetics is in a transition period, becoming an exact science just as the chemistry in the times of Lavoisier, who made the balance an indispensable implement in chemical research.”
― Wilhelm Johannsen

“{Recalling Professor Ira Remsen's remarks (1895) to a group of his graduate students about to go out with their degrees into the world beyond the university:}

He talked to us for an hour on what was ahead of us; cautioned us against giving up the desire to push ahead by continued study and work. He warned us against allowing our present accomplishments to be the high spot in our lives. He urged us not to wait for a brilliant idea before beginning independent research, and emphasized the fact the Lavoisier's first contribution to chemistry was the analysis of a sample of gypsum. He told us that the fields in which the great masters had worked were still fruitful; the ground had only been scratched and the gleaner could be sure of ample reward.”
― James F. Norris

“We all teach ... the chemistry of Lavoisier and Gay-Lussac.”
― Marcellin Berthelot

“Facile a dirsi per chi non conosce le logiche del paese. No, sarebbe stata fatica sprecata. Perché in paese nessuno avrebbe detto niente, nessuno avrebbe fiatato. In paese la vita vive sotto la cenere e lì resta. Degno corollario del principio di Lavoisier (niente si crea e niente si distrugge): in paese tutto si conserva e tutto si tace.”
― Flavio Santi, L'estate non perdona