James Clerk Maxwell

ignorance advance science

“Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

advantage student read original memoir

“It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state...”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

molecule hydrogen vibration universe natural

“A molecule of hydrogen....whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule therefore throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the double royal cubit of the temple of Karnac. No theory of evolution can be formed to account for the similarity of molecules, for evolution necessarily implies continuous change, and the molecule is incapable of growth or decay, of generation or destruction.... We are therefore unable to ascribe either the existence of the molecules or the identity of their properties to any of the causes which we call natural.”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

Force Newton pupil poem maxwell

“That small word “Force,” they make a barber's block,

Ready to put on

Meanings most strange and various, fit to shock

Pupils of Newton....

The phrases of last century in this

Linger to play tricks—

Vis viva and Vis Mortua and Vis Acceleratrix:—

Those long-nebbed words that to our text books still

Cling by their titles,

And from them creep, as entozoa will,

Into our vitals.

But see! Tait writes in lucid symbols clear

One small equation;

And Force becomes of Energy a mere

Space-variation.”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

study Boltzmann understand shortness lenth

“By the study of Boltzmann I have been unable to understand him. He could not understand me on account of my shortness, and his length was and is an equal stumbling block to me.”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

statistical law ignorance matters

“statistical laws are not necessarily used as a result of our ignorance. statistical laws can reflect how things really are. there are matters that can only be treated statistically.”

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

science interest discoverer endurable idea fascinating

"In Science, it is when we take some interest in the great discoverers and their lives that it becomes endurable, and only when we begin to trace the development of ideas that it becomes fascinating."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

logic world calculus probability magnitude

"The true Logic for this world is the Calculus of Probabilities, which takes account of the magnitude of the probability."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

mind matter fabricate

"The only laws of matter are those that our minds must fabricate and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

knowledge progress fact data

"In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

Faraday father electromagnetism

"Faraday is, and must always remain, the father of that enlarged science of electromagnetism."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

times places atoms poem Maxwell

"At quite uncertain times and places,

The atoms left their heavenly path,

And by fortuitous embraces,

Engendered all that being hath.

And though they seem to cling together,

And form 'associations' here,

Yet, soon or late, they burst their tether,

And through the depths of space career."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

mathematical sciences relation laws numbers

"All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

energy field electromagnetic mechanical

"In speaking of the Energy of the field, however, I wish to be understood literally. All energy is the same as mechanical energy, whether it exists in the form of motion or in that of elasticity, or in any other form. The energy in electromagnetic phenomena is mechanical energy."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

heat generated destroyed substance

"Heat may be generated and destroyed by certain processes, and this shows that heat is not a substance."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

soul entangled knot liquid vortex poem maxwell

"My soul is an entangled knot,

Upon a liquid vortex wrought

By Intellect in the Unseen residing,

And thine doth like a convict sit,

With marline-spike untwisting it,

Only to find its knottiness abiding;

Since all the tools for its untying

In four-dimensional space are lying,

Wherein they fancy intersperses

Long avenues of universes,

While Klein and Clifford fill the void

With one finite, unbounded homoloid,

And think the Infinite is now at last destroyed."

― James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)