List of Antoine Lavoisier Quotes

Since It Is The Very Substance Of The Animal, It Is The Blood Which Transports The Fuel.if The Animal Did Not Habitually Replace, Through Nourishing Themselves,what They Losethrough Respiration, The Lamp Would Very Soon Run Out Of Oil And The Animal Would Perish, Just As The Lamp Goes Out When It Lacks Fuel.

Mathematicians Come To The Solution Of A Problem By The Simple Arrangement Of The Data, And Reducing The Reasoning To Such Simple Operations, To Judgments So Brief, That They Never Lose Sight Of The Evidence That Serves As Their Guide.

It Is Almost Possible To Predict One Or Two Days In Advance, Within A Rather Broad Range Of Probability, What The Weather Is Going To Be; It Is Even Thought That It Will Not Be Impossible To Publish Daily Forecasts, Which Would Be Very Useful To Soci.

The Art Of Drawing Conclusions From Experiments And Observations Consists In Evaluating Probabilities And In Estimating Whether They Are Sufficiently Great Or Numerous Enough To Constitute Proofs. This Kind Of Calculation Is More Complicated And More Difficult Than It Is Commonly Thought To Be. . . .

It Is Not Only By The Pores Of The Skin That This Aqueous Emaciation Takes Place. A Considerable Quantity Of Humidity Is Also Exhaled By The Lungs At Each Expiration.

Thus, While I Thought Myself Employed Only In Forming A Nomenclature, And While I Proposed To Myself Nothing More Than To Improve The Chemical Language, My Work Transformed Itself By Degrees, Without My Being Able To Prevent It, Into A Treatise Upon The Elements Of Chemistry.

If Everything In Chemistry Is Explained In A Satisfactory Manner Without The Help Of Phlogiston, It Is By That Reason Alone Infinitely Probable That The Principle Does Not Exist; That It Is A Hypothetical Body, A Gratuitous Supposition; Indeed, It Is In The Principles Of Good Logic, Not To Multiply Bodies Without Necessity.

Diminish The Mass Of Evils That Afflict The Human Species, Increase Enjoyment And Well-being. And Even If The New Routes Opened Up Could Prolong The Average Life Of Mankind By Only A Few Hours, Or Even A Few Days, Then The Scientist, Too Could Aspire.

In Every Combustion There Is Disengagement Of The Matter Of Fire Or Of Light. A Body Can Burn Only In Pure Air [oxygen]. There Is No Destruction Or Decomposition Of Pure Air And The Increase In Weight Of The Body Burnt Is Exactly Equal To The Weight Of Air Destroyed Or Decomposed. The Body Burnt Changes Into An Acid By Addition Of The Substance That Increases Its Weight. Pure Air Is A Compound Of The Matter Of Fire Or Of Light With A Base. In Combustion The Burning Body Removes The Base, Which It Attracts More Strongly Than Does The Matter Of Heat, Which Appears As Flame, Heat And Light.

Vegetables Are Organized Bodies That Grow On The Dry Areas Of The Globe And Within Its Waters. Their Function Is To Combine Immediately The Four Elements And To Serve As Food For Animals.

This Theory [the Oxygen Theory] Is Not As I Have Heard It Described, That Of The French Chemists, It Is Mine (elle Est La Mienne); It Is A Property Which I Claim From My Contemporaries And From Posterity.

Experiments Upon Vegetation Give Reason To Believe That Light Combines With Certain Parts Of Vegetables, And That The Green Of Their Leaves, And The Various Colors Of Flowers, Is Chiefly Owing To This Combination.