"the alchemists came to project even the highest value—God—into matter.

the highest value safely embedded in matter, a starting-point was given for the development of genuine chemistry on the one hand

and of the more recent philosophical materialism on the other, with all the psychological consequences that necessarily ensue when the picture of the world is shifted 180 degrees.

we should not underestimate its cultural importance for the Middle Ages. Today is the child of the Middle Ages."