Irving Langmuir

Many of the things that have happened in the laboratory have happened in ways it would have been impossible to foresee, but…

— Irving Langmuir

Science, almost from its beginnings, has been truly international in character. National prejudices disappear completely in the scientist's search for truth.

— Irving Langmuir

Only a small part of scientific progress has resulted from planned search for specific objectives. A much more important part has been…

— Irving Langmuir

The scientist is motivated primarily by curiosity and a desire for truth.

— Irving Langmuir

This coupling together of science with international peace, is, I think, particularly significant.

— Irving Langmuir

Happy indeed is the scientist who not only has the pleasures which I have enumerated, but who also wins the recognition of…

— Irving Langmuir

To my mind, the most important aspect of the Nobel Awards is that they bring home to the masses of the peoples…

— Irving Langmuir

Train yourselves. Don't wait to be fed knowledge out of a book. Get out and seek it. Make explorations. Do your own…

— Irving Langmuir

Medicine also disregards national boundaries.

— Irving Langmuir

History proves abundantly that pure science, undertaken without regard to applications to human needs, is usually ultimately of direct benefit to mankind.

— Irving Langmuir

[There] are cases where there is no dishonesty involved but where people are tricked into false results by a lack of understanding…

— Irving Langmuir

A chemist who does not know mathematics is seriously handicapped.

— Irving Langmuir

And literature frequently rises to heights that make it international.

— Irving Langmuir

[In the case of research director, Willis R. Whitney, whose style was to give talented investigators as much freedom as possible, you…

— Irving Langmuir