Henry Cavendish quotes

Henry Cavendish was an English natural philosopher and scientist, renowned for his discovery of hydrogen and his pioneering work in chemistry and physics. His experiments led to major advancements in understanding gases and the composition of air and water. He contributed significantly to science with meticulous measurements and innovative ideas. Here are 10 of his quotes:

Young people must break machines to learn how to use them; get another made!

Henry Cavendish

He was the wealthiest of all scholars (savants) and probably also the most scholarly of all the wealthy.

Henry Cavendish

It only remains that I offer very briefly my own estimate of the character of the Philosopher. Morally it was a blank, and can be described only by a series of negations. He did not love; he did not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God. There was nothing earnest, enthusiastic, heroic, or chivalrous in his nature, and as little was there anything mean, grovelling, or ignoble. He was almost passionless.

Henry Cavendish

Yet, if such a being, who reversed the maxim nihil humani me alienum puto [nothing human is foreign to me], cannot be loved, as little can he be abhorred or despised. He was, in spite of the atrophy or non development of many of the faculties which are found in those in whom the "elements are kindly mixed," as truly a genius as the mere poets, painters, and musicians, with small intellects, and hearts and large imaginations, to whom the world is so willing to bend the knee.

Henry Cavendish

He was like a deaf mute sitting apart from a circle, whose looks and gestures show that they are uttering and listening to music and eloquence, in producing or welcoming which he can be no sharer. Wisely, therefore, he dwelt apart, and bidding the world farewell, took the self imposed vows of a Scientific Anchorite, and, like the Monks of old, shut himself up within his cell. It was a kingdom sufficient for him, and from its narrow window he saw as much of the Universe as he cared to see. It had a throne also, and from it he dispensed royal gifts to his brethren.

Henry Cavendish

[A] prolonged and acrimonious controversy... was for many years carried on and is... hardly... settled regarding the respective claims of different philosophers to be the true discoverer of the nature and composition of water.

Henry Cavendish

[T]his delay between the discovery and the date of publication caused his claims to one of the most marvelous discoveries the world ever saw, to be contested by... James Watt and Lavoisier.

Henry Cavendish

As Lavoisier was from the first accused by the English chemists of having acted unfairly toward them, and as indeed his own claim only dates back to June 25, 1783, he may be dismissed from further consideration; and during the lives of the English claimants there were no public complaints on either side, although Watt, in private letters to his friends, hinted at Cavendish's incapacity and unfairness.

Henry Cavendish

Neutral salts, Cavendish's starting point... were... composed of acids and other substances, mostly alkalis, that were without acidity. Not long before, all of the known neutral salts could be listed in a table of twelve... the possible combinations of the four known acidic salts and the three known alkaline salts. Just as Cavendish began to work... the tidy, managable table... was fast expanding. The empirical field of salts was recognized as highly undeveloped...

Henry Cavendish