Louis Pasteur | autograph quotation signed, undated

Pasteur, Louis

Autograph quotation signed

"La science n'a pas de patrie, mais l'homme de science doit en avoir une. C'est à elle qu'il doit reporter l'influence que ses travaux peuvent avoir dans le monde" [science has no country, but men of science must have theirs. It is to their homeland that they must report the influence that their works might have in the world], 1 page, 8vo, n.d., adhesive marks to the verso

Pasteur spoke these words in his speech for the inauguration of L'Institut Pasteur on 14 November 1888. They are a modification of his famous statement that "science knows no country", acknowledging his debt to the French state and the new institute's status as an emblem of French national excellence and ambition in scientific research.