Humphry Davy defending his protégé's useless science experiments

"Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume our views of science are ultimate, that there no mysteries in nature, that our triumphs are complete and that there are no new worlds to conquer,"
Sir Humphry Davy

These were the words that Humphry Davy said in defense of his protégé's useless science experiments.

His protégé was Michael Faraday who invented/discovered the following (amongst other works):

- first dynamo (From his discovery of electromagnetic induction)
- discovered the compound benzene.
- researched electrolysis, formulating Faraday's law.
- laid the foundations of the classical electromagnetic field theory

 

A Discourse introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry, Delivered in the Theatre of the Royal Institution, on the 21st of January, 1802.
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Davy/davy2dis.html

I came across the quote in the TED presentation by Brian Cox on the state of the LHC in 2009.