Top 3 Quotes & Sayings by Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff.
Last updated on April 15, 2025.
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

Jacobus Henricus "Henry" van 't Hoff Jr. was a Dutch physical chemist. A highly influential theoretical chemist of his time, Van 't Hoff was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His pioneering work helped found the modern theory of chemical affinity, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, and chemical thermodynamics. In his 1874 pamphlet Van 't Hoff formulated the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom and laid the foundations of stereochemistry. In 1875, he predicted the correct structures of allenes and cumulenes as well as their axial chirality. He is also widely considered one of the founders of physical chemistry as the discipline is known today.

Whereas the chemico-chemists always find in industry a beautiful field of gold-laden soil, the physico-chemists stand somewhat farther off, especially those who seek only the greatest dilution, for in general there is little to make with watery solutions.
A famous name has this peculiarity that it becomes gradually smaller especially in natural sciences where each succeeding discovery invariably overshadows what precedes.
It is sometimes easier to circumvent prevailing difficulties [in science] rather than to attack them. — © Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
It is sometimes easier to circumvent prevailing difficulties [in science] rather than to attack them.
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