Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
To measure is to know.
Fourier is a mathematical poem.
You know only insofar as you can measure.
Mathematics is the only good metaphysics.
Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
If you cannot measure it, then it is not science.
If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.
At what time does the dissipation of energy begin?
To live among friends is the primary essential of happiness.
All of science can be divided into physics and stamp-collecting.
In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting.
When you cannot measure, your knowledge is meager and unsatisfactory.
The atheistic idea is so nonsensical that I cannot put it into words.
There is nothing in science which teaches the origin of anything at all.
I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their numerical magnitude.
When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery.
[Of the ether] it is no greater mystery at all events than the shoemakers' wax.
The atheistic idea is so nonsensical that I do not see how I can put it in words.
The true measure of a man is what he would do if he knew he would never be caught.
If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.
If we can't express what we know in the form of numbers, we really don't know much about it.
Radio has no future." "X-rays are clearly a hoax". "The aeroplane is scientifically impossible.
The more thoroughly I conduct scientific research, the more I believe that science excludes atheism.
When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.
There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
[Referring to Fourier's mathematical theory of the conduction of heat] ... Fourier's great mathematical poem.
Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and women.
I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism.
Vortices of pure energy can exist and, if my theories are right, can compose the bodily form of an intelligent species.
Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and fancy women.
Science is bound, by the everlasting vow of honour, to face fearlessly every problem which can be fairly presented to it.
Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.
Overwhelmingly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie around us... the atheistic idea is so nonsensical that I cannot put it into words.
Ether is the only substance we are confident of in dynamics. One thing we are sure of and that is the reality and substantiality of the luminferous ether.
The vortex theory [of the atom] is only a dream. Itself unproven, it can prove nothing, and any speculations founded upon it are mere dreams about dreams.
Can you measure it? Can you express it in figures? Can you make a model of it? If not, your theory is apt to be based more upon imagination than upon knowledge.
There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application.
The fact that mathematics does such a good job of describing the Universe is a mystery that we don't understand. And a debt that we will probably never be able to repay.
Simplification of modes of proof is not merely an indication of advance in our knowledge of a subject, but is also the surest guarantee of readiness for farther progress.
Symmetrical equations are good in their place, but ' vector ' is a useless survival, or offshoot from quaternions, and has never been of the slightest use to any creature.
Quaternions came from Hamilton after his really good work had been done, and though beautifully ingenious, have been an unmixed evil to those who have touched them in any way.
Questions of personal priority, however interesting they may be to the persons concerned, sink into insignificance in the prospect of any gain of deeper insight into the secrets of nature.
We only know God in His works, but we are forced by science to admit and to believe with absolute confidence in a Directive Power-in an influence other than physical, or dynamical, or electrical forces.
Let nobody be afraid of true freedom of thought. Let us be free in thought and criticism; but, with freedom, we are bound to come to the conclusion that science is not antagonistic to religion, but a help to it.
Fourier's theorem is not only one of the most beautiful results of modern analysis, but it may be said to furnish an indispensable instrument in the treatment of nearly every recondite question in modern physics.
I can never satisfy myself until I can make a mechanical model of a thing. If I can make a mechanical model, I can understand it. As long as I cannot make a mechanical model all the way through I cannot understand.
Nothing can be more fatal to progress than a too confident reliance on mathematical symbols; for the student is only too apt to take the easier course, and consider the formula not the fact as the physical reality.
We all confidently believe that there are at present, and have been from time immemorial, many worlds of life besides our own. . . . [This] may seem wild, and visionary; all I maintain is that it is not unscientific.
I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.