Dmitri Mendeleev

“I want you to have this feeling too - it is my moral responsibility to help you achieve this inner freedom.”

“Pleasures flit by - they are only for yourself; work leaves a mark of long-lasting joy, work is for others.”

“It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man - social and political - and to the entire universe as a whole.”

“We could live at the present day without a Plato, but a double number of Newtons is required to discover the secrets of nature, and to bring life into harmony with the laws of nature.”

“Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I cannot soon give a solution to these questions ... It was clear that in the United States there was a development not of the best, but of the middle and worst sides of European civilization; the notorious general voting, the tendency to politics... all the same as in Europe. A new dawn is not to be seen on this side of the ocean.”

“The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties.”

“The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body.”

“No one nor anything can silence me.”

“The establishment of a law, moreover, does not take place when the first thought of it takes form, or even when its significance is recognised, but only when it has been confirmed by the results of the experiment.”

“We must expect the discovery of many as yet unknown elements-for example, elements analogous to aluminum and silicon- whose atomic weight would be between 65 and 75.”

“There is nothing in this world that I fear to say.”

“I have achieved an inner freedom.”

“No law of nature, however general, has been established all at once; its recognition has always been preceded by many presentiments.”

“Work, look for peace and calm in work: you will find it nowhere else.”

“Elements which are similar as regards their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (eg. Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (eg. K, Ru, Cs).”

“There exists everywhere a medium in things, determined by equilibrium.”

“Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights.”

“The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights.”

“The most all penetrating spirit before which will open the possibility of tilting not tables, but planets, is the spirit of free human inquiry. Believe only in that.”