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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index T > Henry Taube Quotes

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Henry Taube
(30 Nov 1915 - 16 Nov 2005)

Canadian-American chemist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his extensive research processes involving the ions of metallic elements.


Science Quotes by Henry Taube (11 quotes)

As we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Continue (179)  |  Depend (238)  |  Future (467)  |  Kind (564)  |  Material (366)  |  Other (2233)  |  Secured (18)  |  Understanding (527)

Because a child of one doubles its age after the passage of a single year, it can be said to be aging rapidly.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aging (9)  |  Child (333)  |  Double (18)  |  Passage (52)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Single (365)  |  Year (963)

Chemistry as a science is still in its infancy. I hold to my view because there is still so much beyond our understanding even in the simplest systems the chemist has cared to deal with.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Car (75)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Deal (192)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Simple (426)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (496)

Governments, universities and industry must put their faith in science and tell their people to study what they want to study.
— Henry Taube
From speech at the University of Saskatchewan, as quoted in Sean Trembath, 'Chemist Henry Taube Was Saskatchewan's First Nobel Laureate', Saskatoon StarPhoenix (5 Jan 2017).
Science quotes on:  |  Faith (209)  |  Government (116)  |  Industry (159)  |  Must (1525)  |  People (1031)  |  Research (753)  |  Study (701)  |  Support (151)  |  Tell (344)  |  University (130)  |  Want (504)

I worked for many years in almost total obscurity doing what I thought was interesting.
— Henry Taube
In interview with Associated Press, as quoted in Sean Trembath, 'Chemist Henry Taube Was Saskatchewan's First Nobel Laureate', Saskatoon StarPhoenix (5 Jan 2017)
Science quotes on:  |  Doing (277)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Thought (995)  |  Total (95)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Joy of discovery is real, and it is one of our rewards. So too is the approval of our work by our peers.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Approval (12)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Joy (117)  |  Peer (13)  |  Real (159)  |  Reward (72)  |  Work (1402)

Science as an intellectual exercise enriches our culture, and is in itself ennobling.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Culture (157)  |  Ennoble (8)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Intellectual (258)

The study of the reactivity of metal ion complexes—the birth of which I have witnessed and which I have helped to nurture … is still in its infancy; it too is flourishing.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Birth (154)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Flourishing (6)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Ion (21)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Witness (57)

Though to the layman, the world revealed by the chemist may seem more commonplace, it is not so to him. Each new insight into how the atoms in their interactions express themselves in structure and transformations, not only of inanimate matter, but particularly also of living matter, provides a thrill.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Express (192)  |  Expression (181)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Insight (107)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Layman (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Structure (365)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thrill (26)  |  Transformation (72)  |  World (1850)

Undeveloped though the science [of chemistry] is, it already has great power to bring benefits. Those accruing to physical welfare are readily recognized, as in providing cures, improving the materials needed for everyday living, moving to ameliorate the harm which mankind by its sheer numbers does to the environment, to say nothing of that which even today attends industrial development. And as we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Application (257)  |  Attend (67)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cure (124)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Environment (239)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Improve (64)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Industrial Development (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Living (492)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (320)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Provision (17)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Say (989)  |  Secured (18)  |  Today (321)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Welfare (30)

Who can fail to be uplifted by the kind of vision that the laureates in physics have provided into the outer reaches of space?
— Henry Taube
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Fail (191)  |  Kind (564)  |  Laureate (2)  |  Outer Space (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Space (523)  |  Uplift (6)  |  Vision (127)


See also:
  • 30 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Taube's birth.
  • Booklist for Nobel Prize Scientists.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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