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Josiah Willard Gibbs
5 quotes
“One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Gibbs's letter accepting the Rumford Medal (1881). Quoted in A. L. Mackay, Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London, 1994).
“His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Gibbs's obituary for Rudolf Clausius (1889). See The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs, vol. 2 (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1928), p. 267. Complete volume
“In all these papers we see a love of honest work, an aversion to shams, a caution in the enunciation of conclusions, a distrust of rash generalizations and speculations based on uncertain premises. He was never anxious to add one more guess on doubtful matters in the hope of hitting the truth, or what might pass as such for a time, but was always ready to take infinite pains in the most careful testing of every theory. With these qualities was united a modesty which forbade the pushing of his own claims and desired no reputation except the unsought tribute of competent judges.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Gibbs's obituary for Hubert Anson Newton (1897), in the Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The laws of thermodynamics, as empirically determined, express the approximate and probable behavior of systems of a great number of particles, or, more precisely, they express the laws of mechanics for such systems as they appear to beings who have not the fineness of perception to enable them to appreciate quantities of the order of magnitude of those which relate to single particles, and who cannot repeat their experiments often enough to obtain any but the most probable results.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the preface to Elementary Principles in Statististical Mechanics (1902), p. viii. Full book
“We avoid the gravest difficulties when, giving up the attempt to frame hypotheses concerning the constitution of matter, we pursue statistical inquiries as a branch of rational mechanics.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the preface to Elementary Principles in Statististical Mechanics (1902), p. ix.