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Quote by John Boyle O'Reilly

Work

Selected poems, speeches, dedications and letters of John Boyle O'Reilly, 1844-1890

The book offers a glimpse into the literary and personal works of John Boyle O'Reilly, showcasing his poetry, oratory skills, and correspondence. It provides insight into his life and times, reflecting the social and political context of the late 19th century. more

Author

John Boyle O'Reilly
John Boyle O'Reilly

John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish-American poet, born on June 28, 1844, and died on August 10, 1890. His poetry was deeply influenced by Irish nationalism and Romanticism, with notable works including 'The Irish Spring' and 'The Irish Autumn'. more

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“In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. 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; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.”

“No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.”

“The strength and weakness of physicists is that we believe in what we can measure. And if we can't measure it, then we say it probably doesn't exist. And that closes us off to an enormous amount of phenomena that we may not be able to measure because they only happened once. For example, the Big Bang. ... That's one reason why they scoffed at higher dimensions for so many years. Now we realize that there's no alternative.”

“There is no instrument for measuring the pressure of the Ether, which is probably millions of times greater: it is altogether too uniform for direct apprehension. A deep-sea fish has probably no means of apprehending the existence of water, it is too uniformly immersed in it: and that is our condition in regard to the Ether.”