Gerhard Herzberg

“Every newspaper feels it must have an astrology column, and even in the Carleton University bookstore this morning, I found books on astrology for sale.”

“Dealing with the health of people is more important than political considerations.”

“There is nothing wrong with good accounting, except that it does not necessarily lead to good science.”

“The citation for the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry reads, 'for contribution to the knowledge of electronic structures and geometry of molecules, especially free radicals,' and therefore implies that the Prize has been awarded for a long series of studies extending practically over my whole scientific life.”

“Pursue science because it is knowledge, because it broadens our horizons. There is so much more to be discovered.”

“The Glassco Commission was really not interested in good science. It was interested in good accounting.”

“I was brought up as a physicist.”

“The CH radical is a very reactive radical which, under most conditions, has a very short lifetime.”

“The visible and near-ultraviolet emission spectrum of the CH radical has been known ever since spectra of an ordinary Bunsen burner have been taken.”

“Many science people feel groups like WHO are there to do a job and not to be dealt with in a political way.”

“If you start from nothing, it is very difficult to get anywhere.”

“For polyatomic free radicals and ions, one is dependent both for the ground states and the excited states on the study of electronic spectra to obtain the shapes and the geometrical parameters.”

“It is very difficult to find appropriate words to say 'thank you' for an honour like the Nobel Prize. It is the supreme honour that a scientist can receive. Some of the giants in physics and chemistry have received this prize.”

“Interest in the pseudo-sciences has become extraordinary.”