Quotessence
Home / Authors / James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

Physicist

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceMayLawMindMatterIfsBodyMenFormMathematicalTheoryElectricResultsSpaceAccountsDoctrineExperimentsHas BeensLightMaterials

Famous James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

“The theory I propose may therefore be called a theory of the Electromagnetic Field because it has to do with the space in the neighbourhood of the electric or magnetic bodies, and it may be called a Dynamical Theory, because it assumes that in the space there is matter in motion, by which the observed electromagnetic phenomena are produced.”

MayMatterBodyScienceSpaceFieldsTheoryAssumingElectricProposeMagneticNeighbourhoods
Book:The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Vol. I
Create image

“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.”

MindHumansStillsMatterBodyLastsFormLawMoralDoubtDesignLessonsHarmonyDoctrineMathematicalSignificanceDomainCrystalsUsefulnessAnalogiesExcludedBurstingSparklingRigidityHuman KnowledgeFabricateTrigonometry
Book:The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862
Create image

“Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted not only to be a medium of physical interaction between distant bodies, and to fulfil other physical functions of which perhaps we have as yet no conception, but also to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours are at present is a question far transcending the limits of physical speculation.”

MindMatterBodyMaterialsHigherExerciseLimitsFunctionMediumsConceptionInteractionOrganismsSpeculationTranscendingExpanseHomogeneous
Book:Scientific Papers
Create image

“Accordingly, we find Euler and D'Alembert devoting their talent and their patience to the establishment of the laws of rotation of the solid bodies. Lagrange has incorporated his own analysis of the problem with his general treatment of mechanics, and since his time M. Poinsôt has brought the subject under the power of a more searching analysis than that of the calculus, in which ideas take the place of symbols, and intelligent propositions supersede equations.”

IdeasProblemBodyLawScienceSubjectsTalentIntelligentSymbolsAnalysisTreatmentEstablishmentPropositionsMechanicEquationsCalculusRotationEuler
Author:James Clerk Maxwell
Create image

“In fact, whenever energy is transmitted from one body to another in time, there must be a medium or substance in which the energy exists after it leaves one body and before it reaches the other ... and if we admit this medium as an hypothesis, I think it ought to occupy a prominent place in our investigations, and that we ought to endeavour to construct a mental representation of all the details of its action, and this has been my constant aim in this treatise.”

IfsThinkingHas BeensFactsBodyActionScienceEnergyOughtAimConstantDetailsMediumsSubstanceInvestigationRepresentationConstructsHypothesisEndeavourProminent
Author:James Clerk Maxwell
Create image