“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.” ScienceMath Author:Lord Kelvin
“The steam engine has done much more for science than science has done for the steam engine.” ScienceSteam Engine Author:Lord Kelvin
“Oersted would never have made his great discovery of the action of galvanic currents on magnets had he stopped in his researches to consider in what manner they could possibly be turned to practical account; and so we would not now be able to boast of the wonders done by the electric telegraphs. Indeed, no great law in Natural Philosophy has ever been discovered for its practical implications, but the instances are innumerable of investigations apparently quite useless in this narrow sense of the word which have led to the most valuable results.” ScienceResearchValueHans Christian ØRstedOerstedØRsted Author:Lord Kelvin
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.” KnowsScienceNumbersMathematicsMathMeasurementPhilosophy Of ScienceMath And ScienceMathematics And SciencePhysical ScienceMath EducationNumbers And MathMeasure For MeasureKnowing SomethingMathematical ProofFlying Machines Author:Lord Kelvin
“In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting.” SciencePhysicsStampsCollectingStamp Collecting Author:Lord Kelvin
“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.” KnowsKindScienceNumbersMathematicsMathMeasurementPhilosophy Of ScienceMath And ScienceMathematics And SciencePhysical ScienceMath EducationNumbers And MathMeasure For MeasureKnowing SomethingFlying Machines Author:Lord Kelvin
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” ScienceCreativityImpossibleAirComputerMachinesInnovationPhysicsSillyFlyingDumbAviationProvenPredictionsFollow Your DreamsStupid PeopleSkepticPropheticPredictingForecastsFamous Last WordsShort SightedScience PhysicsPredicting The FutureCrazy IdeasProven WrongFlying MachinesFuture Science Author:Lord Kelvin
“Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific imagination, a less lofty and dignified work than looking for something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries of science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement and patient long-continued labour in the minute sifting of numerical results.” LongHas BeensSeemsScienceImaginationResultsMinutesHard WorkDiscoveryDignityRewardsPatientLabourSomething NewAccurateMeasurementLoftySifting Author:Lord Kelvin
“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.” KnowsScienceKnowledgeProgressSubjectsProofGuaranteesIndicationReadinessSimplification Book:Elements of Natural Philosophy Source: Elements of Natural Philosophy
“The life and soul of science is its practical application, and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.” WorldKindHas BeensMadeSoulMatterProblemScienceDesirePurposeTurnsKnowledgeMankindSolutionsMathematicsPropertyPracticalsMathematicalApplicationDiscoveringEarnestPresent TimePhysical ScienceProperties Of Matter Author:Lord Kelvin
“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.” DreamScienceTheoryProveMereAtomsSpeculationVortex Author:Lord Kelvin
“[Referring to Fourier's mathematical theory of the conduction of heat] ... Fourier's great mathematical poem.” ScienceTheoryMathematicalHeatBiographiesReferringFourier Author:Lord Kelvin
“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.” ScienceDiscoveryRemainsPhysicsPreciseMeasurementNothing NewNew DiscoveriesAll That RemainsDiscovery In Science Author:Lord Kelvin
“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.” MayPersonsScienceNatureNaturalInterestingSecretGainsConcernedDeeperInsightPrioritiesInsignificance Author:Lord Kelvin
“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.” IfsWayLongI CanScienceAcceptanceModels Author:Lord Kelvin
“There is nothing in science which teaches the origin of anything at all.” ScienceTeach Author:Lord Kelvin
“The only census of the senses, so far as I am aware, that ever before made them more than five, was the Irishman's reckoning of seven senses. I presume the Irishman's seventh sense was common sense; and I believe that the possession of that virtue by my countrymen-I speak as an Irishman.” BelieveMadeScienceSpeakI BelieveCommonVirtueFiveSevenPossessionSensesCommon SenseCountrymenReckoningIrishmenCensus Author:Lord Kelvin
