Robert Bunsen Quotes

“Before an experiment can be performed, it must be planned—the question to nature must be formulated before being posed. Before the result of a measurement can be used, it must be interpreted—nature's answer must be understood properly. These two tasks are those of the theorist, who finds himself always more and more dependent on the tools of abstract mathematics. Of course, this does not mean that the experimenter does not also engage in theoretical deliberations. The foremost classical example of a major achievement produced by such a division of labor is the creation of spectrum analysis by the joint efforts of Robert Bunsen, the experimenter, and Gustav Kirchhoff, the theorist. Since then, spectrum analysis has been continually developing and bearing ever richer fruit.”
― Max Planck

“Describing Robert Bunsen:
As an investigator he was great, as a teacher he was greater, as a man and friend he was greatest.”
― Henry Enfield Roscoe

“First I would like to wash Bunsen, and then I would like to kiss him because he is such a charming man.

(Remark by the wife of Emil Fischer, upon meeting Bunsen for the first time, perhaps noticing a lasting chemical odour from his work.)”
― Agnes Fischer