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James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

Physicist

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Famous James Clerk Maxwell 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.”

MindHumansStillsMatterBodyLastsFormLawMoralDoubtDesignLessonsHarmonyDoctrineMathematicalSignificanceDomainCrystalsUsefulnessAnalogiesExcludedBurstingSparklingRigidityHuman KnowledgeFabricateTrigonometry
Book:The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1846-1862
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“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.”

ThinkingMenNeedsShouldMindWellsMayChristianChristResultsViewsChristianityStudyHe ManOughtCapableGloryBoundsSignificanceStampsGlory Of God
Book:The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell:
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“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
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“The popularisation of scientific doctrines is producing as great an alteration in the mental state of society as the material applications of science are effecting in its outward life. Such indeed is the respect paid to science, that the most absurd opinions may become current, provided they are expressed in language, the sound of which recals [sic] some well-known scientific phrase.”

MindWellsMayStatesScienceLanguageSoundKnownOpinionMaterialsPaidCurrentsDoctrineAbsurdPhrasesApplicationWell KnownAlterations
Book:Maxwell on Molecules and Gases
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“Mathematicians may flatter themselves that they possess new ideas which mere human language is as 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 into their minds.”

IfsWayMindHumansMayIdeasScienceFoundLanguageProcessEffortSucceedLaysMereAidsObligationSymbolsAppropriateEnlightenedLastingNew IdeasMathematicianVentureEquationsDoubtfulLaymanHuman Language
Book:The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell
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