Wöhler to Liebig

Justus Liebig and Friedrich Wöhler, the latter of urea synthesis fame (1828), published a landmark paper in 1832 on the chemistry of the benzoyl radical. Liebig had invited Wöhler to collaborate with him in his laboratory in Giessen upon the death of Wöhler's wife. Although the two were close friends, their personalities were quite opposite, a 19th century odd couple so to speak. Wöhler's wise counsel to Liebig follows:

" To make war upon Marchand (or any one else for that matter) is of no use. You merely consume yourself, get angry, and ruin your liver and your nerves --- finally with Morrison's Pills. Imagine yourself in the year 1900, when we shall both be decomposed again into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, and the lime of our bones belongs to the dog who then dishonors our grave. Who then will care whether we lived in peace or in strife? Who then will care anything about your scientific controversies --- of your sacrifices of health and peace for science? No one: but your good ideas, the new facts you have discovered, these, purified from all that is unessential, will be know and recognized in the remotest times. But how do I come to counsel the lion to eat the sugar!"

F. J. Moore, A History of Chemistry, 1918, pg. 124.