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James Clerk Maxwell

28 quotes

• “And last of all we have the secondary forms of crystals bursting in upon us, and sparkling in the rigidity of mathematical necessity and telling us, neither of harmony of design, usefulness or moral significance, — nothing but spherical trigonometry and Napier's analogies. It is because we have blindly excluded the lessons of these angular bodies from the domain of human knowledge that we are still in doubt about the great doctrine that the only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Essay "Analogies in Nature" (February 1856), reprinted in The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862 edited by P.M. Harman, p. 376 (the quote appears on p. 383)

• “The mathematical difficulties of the theory of rotation arise chiefly from the want of geometrical illustrations and sensible images, by which we might fix the results of analysis in our minds.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1857 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On a Dynamical Top, for exhibiting the phenomena of the motion of a system of invariable form about a fixed point, with some suggestions as to the Earth’s motion, read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh (20 April 185…

• “Velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electromagnetic experiments of 'MM'. Kohlrausch and Weber, agrees so exactly with the velocity of light calculated from the optical experiments of M. Fizeau, that we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lecture at Kings College (1862) as quoted by F. V. Jones, "The Man Who Paved the Way for Wireless," New Scientist (Nov 1, 1979) p. 348 & Andrey Vyshedskiy, On The Origin Of The Human Mind 2nd edition

• “I have also cleared the electromagnetic theory of light from all unwarrantable assumption, so that we may safely determine the velocity of light by measuring the attraction between bodies kept at a given difference of potential, the value of which is known in electromagnetic measure.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to C. Hockin, Esq. (Sept 7, 1864) as quoted by Lewis Campbell, William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell: With Selections from His Correspondence and Occasional Writings (1884)

• “I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I hold to be great guns.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to C. H. Cay, (Jan 5,1865) as quoted in , 44(8), page 470, 1976-08

• “We may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics held at Cambridge in October 1871, re-edited by W. D. Niven (2003) in Volume 2 of The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Courier Dover Publications, p. 243.

• “The vast interplanetary and interstellar regions will no longer be regarded as waste places in the universe, which the Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find them to be already full of this wonderful medium; so full, that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of Space, or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite continuity.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Action at a Distance" Nature (Mar. 6, 1873) Vol VII, Issue 175, p. 343.

• “Mathematicians may flatter themselves that they possess new ideas which mere human language is yet unable to express. Let them make the effort to express these ideas in appropriate words without the aid of symbols, and if they succeed they will not only lay us laymen under a lasting obligation, but we venture to say, they will find themselves very much enlightened during the process, and will even be doubtful whether the ideas as expressed in symbols had ever quite found their way out of the equations of their minds.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Thomson & Tait's Natural Philosophy" in Nature, Vol. 7 (Mar. 27, 1873) A review of (1873) by Sir W. Thomson, P. G. Tait. See [https://archive.org/details/nature7818721873lock Nature, Vol. 7-8, Nov. 1872-Oct. 1873, pp. 3…

• “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) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), Preface, p. xiii.

• “We shall see that the mathematical treatment of the subject [of electricity] has been greatly developed by writers who express themselves in terms of the 'Two Fluids' theory. Their results, however, have been deduced entirely from data which can be proved by experiment, and which must therefore be true, whether we adopt the theory of two fluids or not. The experimental verification of the mathematical results therefore is no evidence for or against the peculiar doctrines of this theory.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), §36.

• “Colour as perceived by us is a function of three independent variables at least three are I think sufficient, but time will show if I thrive.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Maxwell, in a letter to William Thomson, The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862 (1990), p. 245.

• “The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: in a letter to Lord Rayleigh, as quoted in John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh (1924), p. 47.

• “Aye, I suppose I could stay up that late.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Maxwell, on being told on his arrival at Cambridge University that there would be a compulsory 6 a.m. church service, as quoted in Spice in Science : The Best of Science Funnies (2006) by K. Krishna Murty

• “The equations at which we arrive must be such that a person of any nation, by substituting the numerical values of the quantities as measured by his own national units, would obtain a true result.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Encyclopaedia Britannica article, quoted by in Science A Four Thousand Year History (2009) citing Simon Schaffer article in The Values of Precision (1995) ed. M. Norton Wise

• “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) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Lewis Campbell (9 November 1851) in Ch. 6 : Undergraduate Life At Cambridge October 1850 to January 1854 — ÆT. 19-22, p. 159

• “I think men of science as well as other men need to learn from Christ, and I think Christians whose minds are scientific are bound to study science that their view of the glory of God may be as extensive as their being is capable. But I think that the results which each man arrives at in his attempts to harmonize his science with his Christianity ought not to be regarded as having any significance except to the man himself, and to him only for a time, and should not receive the stamp of a society.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Draft of a reply to an invitation to join the Victoria Institute (1875), in Ch. 12 : Cambridge 1871 To 1879, p. 404

• “How the learned fool would wonder Were he now to see his blunder, When he put his reason under The control of worldly Pride.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, "A Vision Of a Wrangler, of a University, of Pedantry, and of Philosophy. " (November 10, 1852)

• “By the hollow mauntain-side Questions strange I shout for ever, While echoes far and wide Seem to mock my vain endeavour; Still I shout, for though they never Cast my borrowed voice aside, Words from empty words they sever— Words of Truth from words of Pride.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, "Reflection from Various Surfaces" (April 18, 1853)

• “Ask no more, then, "what is best, How shall those you love be blest," Ask at once eternal Rest, Peace and assurance giving. Rest of Life and not of death, Rest in Love and Hope and Faith, Til the God who gives their breath Calls them to rest from living.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, "On St. David's Day. To Mrs. E. C. Morrieson." (March 1, 1854)

• “But listen, what harmony holy Is mingling its notes with our own! The discord is vanishing slowly, And melts in that dominant tone. And they that have heard it can never Return to confusion again, Their voices are music for ever, And join in the mystical strain.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, To the Air of "Lörelei." (January, 1858)

• “The world may be utterly crazy And life may be labour in vain; But I'd rather be silly than lazy, And would not quit life for its pain.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III Poems, Tune, Il Segreto per esser felice (March 24, 1858)

• “He that would enjoy life and act with freedom must have the work of the day continually before his eyes. Not yesterday's work, lest he fall into despair; nor to-morrow's, lest he become a visionary—not that which ends with the day, which is a worldly work; nor yet that only which remains to eternity, for by it he cannot shape his actions. Happy is the man who can recognise in the work of to-day a connected portion of the work of life and an embodiment of the work of Eternity. The foundations of his confidence are unchangeable, for he has been made a partaker of Infinity. He strenuously works out his daily enterprises because the present is given him for a possession. Thus ought Man to be an impersonation of the divine process of nature, and to show forth the union of the infinite with the finite, not slighting his temporal existence, remembering that in it only is individual action possible; nor yet shutting out from his view that which is eternal, knowing that Time is a mystery which man cannot endure to contemplate until eternal Truth enlighten it.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Paper communicated to (1854) Æt. 23, as quoted in Lewis Campbell, William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell: With Selections from His Correspondence and Occasional Writings (1884) pp. 144-145, and in , James Cler…

• “The general equations are next applied to the case of a magnetic disturbance propagated through a non-conductive field, and it is shown that the only disturbances which can be so propagated are those which are transverse to the direction of propagation, and that the velocity of propagation is the velocity v, found from experiments such as those of Weber, which expresses the number of electrostatic units of electricity which are contained in one electromagnetic unit. This velocity is so nearly that of light, that it seems we have strong reason to conclude that light itself (including radiant heat, and other radiations if any) is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves propagated through the electromagnetic field according to electromagnetic laws.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: (1864) Introduction, p. 466, §20.

• “This characteristic of modern experiments — that they consist principally of measurements — is so prominent, that the opinion seems to have got abroad, that in a few years all the great physical constants will have been approximately estimated, and that the only occupation which will then be left to men of science will be to carry on these measurements to another place of decimals. If this is really the state of things to which we are approaching, our Laboratory may perhaps become celebrated as a place of conscientious labour and consummate skill, but it will be out of place in the University, and ought rather to be classed with the other great workshops of our country, where equal ability is directed to more useful ends. But we have no right to think thus of the unsearchable riches of creation, or of the untried fertility of those fresh minds into which these riches will continue to be poured. It may possibly be true that, in some of those fields of discovery which lie open to such rough observations as can be made without artificial methods, the great explorers of former times have appropriated most of what is valuable, and that the gleanings which remain are sought after, rather for their abstruseness, than for their intrinsic worth. But the history of science shews that even during the phase of her progress in which she devotes herself to improving the accuracy of the numerical measurement of quantities with which she has long been familiar, she is preparing the materials for the subjugation of the new regions, which would have remained unknown if she had been contented with the rough methods of her early pioneers. I might bring forward instances gathered from every branch of science, shewing how the labour of careful measurement has been rewarded by the discovery of new fields of research, and by the development of new scientific ideas. But the history of the science of terrestrial magnetism affords us a sufficient example of what may be done by experiments in concert, such as we hope some day to perform in our Laboratory.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics held at Cambridge in October 1871, re-edited by W. D. Niven (2003) in Volume 2 of The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Courier Dover Publications, p. 241; this has s…

• “The whole science of heat is founded Thermometry and , and when these operations are understood we may proceed to the third step, which is the investigation of those relations between the thermal and the mechanical properties of substances which form the subject of Thermodynamics. The whole of this part of the subject depends on the consideration of the Intrinsic Energy of a system of bodies, as depending on the temperature and physical state, as well as the form, motion, and relative position of these bodies. Of this energy, however, only a part is available for the purpose of producing mechanical work, and though the energy itself is indestructible, the available part is liable to diminution by the action of certain natural processes, such as conduction and radiation of heat, friction, and viscosity. These processes, by which energy is rendered unavailable as a source of work, are classed together under the name of the Dissipation of Energy.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Theory of Heat "Preface" (1871)

• “I My soul’s an amphicheiral knot Upon a liquid vortex wrought By Intellect in the Unseen residing, While thou dost like a convict sit With marlinspike untwisting it Only to find my knottiness abiding; Since all the tools for my untying In four-dimensioned space are lying, Where playful fancy intersperses Whole avenues of universes; Where Klein and Clifford fill the void With one unbounded, finite homaloid, Whereby the Infinite is hopelessly destroyed. II But when thy Science lifts her pinions In Speculation’s wild dominions, I treasure every dictum thou emittest; While down the stream of Evolution We drift, and look for no solution But that of the survival of the fittest. Till in that twilight of the gods When earth and sun are frozen clods, When, all its energy degraded, Matter in æther shall have faded, We, that is, all the work we’ve done, As waves in æther, shall for ever run In swift-expanding spheres, through heavens beyond the sun. III Great Principle of all we see, Thou endless Continuity! By thee are all our angles gently rounded; Our misfits are by thee adjusted, And as I still in thee have trusted, So let my methods never be confounded! O never may direct Creation Break in upon my contemplation, Still may the causal chain, ascending, Appear unbroken and unending, And, where that chain is lost to sight Let viewless fancies guide my darkling flight Through Æon-haunted worlds, in order infinite. ∂p/∂t”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I believe, with the Westminster Divines and their predecessors ad Infinitum that "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever." That for this end to every man has been given a progressively increasing power of communication with other creatures. That with his powers his susceptibilities increase. That happiness is indissolubly connected with the full exercise of these powers in their intended direction. That Happiness and Misery must inevitably increase with increasing Power and Knowledge. That the translation from the one course to the other is essentially miraculous, while the progress is natural. But the subject is too high. I will not, however, stop short, but proceed to Intellectual Pursuits.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Lewis Campbell (9 November 1851) in Ch. 6 : Undergraduate Life At Cambridge October 1850 to January 1854 — ÆT. 19-22, p. 158

• “I maintain that all the evil influences that I can trace have been internal and not external, you know what I mean—that I have the capacity of being more wicked than any example that man could set me, and that if I escape, it is only by God's grace helping me to get rid of myself, partially in science, more completely in society, — but not perfectly except by committing myself to God as the instrument of His will, not doubtfully, but in the certain hope that that Will will be plain enough at the proper time. Nevertheless, you see things from the outside directly, and I only by reflexion, so I hope that you will not tell me you have little fault to find with me, without finding that little and communicating it.”

  James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Rev. C. B. Tayler ( 8 July 1853) in Ch. 6 : Undergraduate Life At Cambridge October 1850 to January 1854 — ÆT. 19-22, p. 189