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Michael Faraday

22 quotes

“ALL THIS IS A DREAM. Still examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature; and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Laboratory journal entry #10,040 (19 March 1849); published in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) Vol. II, edited by Henry Bence Jones p. 248. This has sometimes been quoted partially as "Nothing is too wonderful to…
“It is the great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it, whether in a degree great or small, instead of exhausting the subjects of research, opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge, overflowing with beauty and utility.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1834 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. 2 (1834) p. 257
“I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it — and I therefore hope and am fully persuaded that you are working. Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds. Nothing is so good as an experiment which, whilst it sets an error right, gives us (as a reward for our humility in being reproved) an absolute advancement in knowledge.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Tyndall (19 April 1851); letter 2411, edited by
“I was at first almost frightened when I saw such mathematical force made to bear upon the subject, and then wondered to see that the subject stood it so well.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1857 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Clerk Maxwell (25 March 1857), commenting on Maxwell's paper titled "On Faraday's Lines of Force"; letter published in The Life of James Clerk Maxwell: With Selections from His Correspondence (1884), edi…
“But still try, for who knows what is possible...”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) Vol. II, edited by Henry Bence Jones, p. 483; also engraved above the doorways of the Pfahler Hall of Science at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (see pho…
“If you would cause your view … to be acknowledged by scientific men; you would do a great service to science. If you would even get them to say yes or no to your conclusions it would help to clear the future progress. I believe some hesitate because they do not like their thoughts disturbed.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture notes of 1858, quoted in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) by Bence Jones, Vol. 2, p. 403
“There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Chemical History of a Candle (1860)
“No wonder that my remembrance fails me, for I shall complete my 70 years next Sunday (the 22); — and during these 70 years I have had a happy life; which still remains happy because of hope and content.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter of Faraday to Christian Friedrich Schönbein (19 September 1861); see also The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836-1862 (1899), edited by Georg W. A. Kahlbaum and Francis V. Darbishire, p. 349
“The secret is comprised in three words — Work, Finish, Publish.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: His well-known advice to the young William Crookes, who had asked him the secret of his success as a scientific investigator, as quoted in Michael Faraday (1874) by John Hall Gladstone, Section IV : His Method of Workin…
“Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked about his speculations on life beyond death, as quoted in The Homiletic Review‎ (April 1896), p. 442
“The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Treasury of the Christian Faith : An Encyclopedic Handbook of the Range and Witness of Christianity (1949) by Stanley Irving Stuber and Thomas Curtis Clark, p. 807
“The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in A Random Walk in Science (1973) by Robert L. Weber, p. 76
“As when on some secluded branch in forest far and wide sits perched an owl, who, full of self-conceit and self-created wisdom, explains, comments, condemns, ordains and order things not understood, yet full of importance still holds forth to stocks and stones around — so sits and scribbles Mike.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Of himself and his writing abilities, as quoted in A Random Walk in Science (1973) by Robert L. Weber, p. 76
“Whereas, according to the declaration of that true man of the world Talleyrand, the use of language is to conceal the thoughts; this is to declare in the present instance, when I say I am not able to bear much talking, it means really, and without any mistake, or equivocation, or oblique meaning, or implication, or subterfuge, or omission, that I am not able; being at present rather weak in the head, and able to work no more.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Penciled note on a scrap of paper in the early 1840's following a physical and mental breakdown, possibly due to mercury poisoning.
“I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last words, answering the question "Have you ever pondered by yourself what will be your occupation in the next world?", as quoted in The Speaker's QuoteBook (1997) edited by Roy B. Zuck, p. 108
“A man who makes assertions, or draws conclusions, regarding any given case, ought to be competent to investigate it. He has no right to throw the onus on others, declaring it their duly to prove him right or wrong. His duty is to demonstrate the truth of that which he asserts, or to cease from asserting. The men he calls upon to consider and judge have enough to do with themselves, in the examination, correction, or verification of their own views. The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realized.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Observations on Mental Education" (May 6, 1854) a lecture before His Royal Highness The Prince Consort and the Members of the Royal Institution, Lectures on Education (1855) as quoted in Faraday's Experimental Researche…
“Among those points of self-education which take up the form of mental discipline, there is one of great importance, and, moreover, difficult to deal with, because it involves an internal conflict, and equally touches our vanity and our ease. It consists in the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for, and the necessity of resistance to these desires. It is impossible for any one who has not been constrained, by the course of his occupation and thoughts, to a habit of continual self-correction, to be aware of the amount of error in relation to judgment arising from this tendency. The force of the temptation which urges us to seek for such evidence and appearances as are in favour of our desires, and to disregard those which oppose them, is wonderfully great. In this respect we are all, more or less, active promoters of error. In place of practising wholesome self-abnegation, we ever make the wish the father to the thought: we receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the very reverse is required by every dictate of common sense.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Royal Institution Lecture On Mental Education (6 May 1854), as reprinted in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics, by Michael Faraday, 1859, pp 474-475, emphasis verbatim.
“I have not been at work except in turning the tables upon table turners – nor should I have done that but that so many enquiries poured in upon me that I thought it better to stop the inpouring flood by letting all know at once what my views and thoughts were. What a weak credulous, incredulous, unbelieving superstitious, bold, frightened, what a ridiculous world ours is, as far as concerns the mind of man. How full of inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities it is. I declare that taking the average of many minds that have recently come before me (and apart from that spirit which God has placed in each) and accepting for a moment that average as a standard, I should far prefer the obedience affections and instinct of a dog before it. Do not whisper this however to others. There is one above who worketh in all things and who governs even in the midst of that misrule to which the tendencies and powers of man are so easily perverted.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836-1862, p.214-215. 1899
“We learn by such results as these, what is the kind of education that science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing, not to despise the small beginnings — they precede of necessity all great things. Vesicles make clouds; they are trifles light as air, but then they make drops, and drops make showers, rain makes torrents and rivers, and these can alter the face of a country, and even keep the ocean to its proper fulness and use. It teaches a continual comparison of the small and great, and that under differences almost approaching the infinite, for the small as often contains the great in principle, as the great does the small; and thus the mind becomes comprehensive. It teaches to deduce principles carefully, to hold them firmly, or to suspend the judgment, to discover and obey law, and by it to be bold in applying to the greatest what we know of the smallest. It teaches us first by tutors and books, to learn that which is already known to others, and then by the light and methods which belong to science to learn for ourselves and for others; so making a fruitful return to man in the future for that which we have obtained from the men of the past.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture notes of 1858, quoted in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) by Bence Jones, Vol. 2, p. 403
“Bacon in his instruction tells us that the scientific student ought not to be as the ant, who gathers merely, nor as the spider who spins from her own bowels, but rather as the bee who both gathers and produces. All this is true of the teaching afforded by any part of physical science. Electricity is often called wonderful, beautiful; but it is so only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty of electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious, and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, and not beneath it, and it is in such a point of view that the mental education afforded by science is rendered super-eminent in dignity, in practical application and utility; for by enabling the mind to apply the natural power through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture notes of 1858, quoted in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) by Bence Jones, Vol. 2, p. 404
“I am, I hope, very thankful that in the withdrawal of the powers and things of life, the good hope is left with me, which makes the contemplation of death a comfort — not a fear. Such peace is alone the gift of God, and as it is He who gives it, why should we be afraid? His unspeakable gift in His beloved Son is the ground of no doubtful hope, and there is the rest for those who (like you and me) are drawing near the latter end of our terms here below. I do not know, however why I should join you with me in years. I forget your age, but this I know (and feel as well) that next Sabbath day (the 22nd) I shall complete my 70th year. I can hardly think myself so old as I write to you — so much of cheerful spirit, ease and general health is left to me, and if my memory fails, why it causes that I forget troubles as well as pleasure and the end is, I am happy and content.”
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Auguste de la Rive (1861), as quoted in The Philosopher's Tree : A Selection of Michael Faraday's Writings (1999) edited by Peter Day, p. 199