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Perpetual Motion Quotes

Browse 33 quotes about Perpetual Motion.

Perpetual Motion Quotes

“She is mad, and I am sane. To speak to her, even the first word, would be an acknowledgement and an acceptance of her madness, and from there I would have no choice but to follow her down the hole until both of us would be here alone in this ship among the clouds, endlessly circling the earth, our needs carefully ministered to by mechanical men, howling ourselves hoarse and counting off the ticks of the clock before the moon falls out of the sky.”

MadnessScience FictionDexter PalmerSteampunkThe Dream Of Perpetual MotionPerpetual MotionThe MoonAirship
Book:The Dream of Perpetual Motion
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“The machines of this place are failing, and the woman and I are here all alone. The perpetual motion engine, as brilliant and beautiful as it is, is running down—nothing lasts forever. But before this little world falls out of the sky there still might be time enough for redemption. There is still time for me to say the words that I should have had the courage to say at the beginning. There is still time, perhaps, for one more miracle. Hello, Miranda.”

SadMiracleScience FictionRedemptionHelloBeginningImpermanenceBittersweetEndingPoignantDexter PalmerSteampunkNothing Lasts ForeverThe Dream Of Perpetual MotionPerpetual Motion
Book:The Dream of Perpetual Motion
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“We are within a whisper of arriving at the first law. Suppose we have a closed system and use it to do some work or allow a release of energy as heat. Its internal energy falls. We then leave the system isolated from its surroundings for as long as we like, and later return to it. We invariably find that its capacity to do work—its internal energy—has not been restored to its original value. In other words, the internal energy of an isolated system is constant. That is the first law of thermodynamics, or at least one statement of it, for the law comes in many equivalent forms. Another universal law of nature, this time of human nature, is that the prospect of wealth motivates deceit. Wealth—and untold benefits to humanity—would accrue to an untold extent if the first law were found to be false under certain conditions. It would be found to be false if work could be generated by an adiabatic, closed system without a diminution of its internal energy. In other words, if we could achieve perpetual motion, work produced without consumption of fuel. Despite enormous efforts, perpetual motion has never been achieved. There have been claims galore, of course, but all of them have involved a degree of deception. Patent offices are now closed to the consideration of all such machines, for the first law is regarded as unbreakable and reports of its transgression not worth the time or effort to pursue. There are certain instances in science, and certainly in technology, where a closed mind is probably justified.”

Perpetual MotionConservation Of EnergyNo Free Lunch
Book:The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction
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“Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations that it must regulate -- something like squaring the circle, or finding perpetual motion? That is the reason why, wearied of the struggle, you fall back on absolutism and force.”

ThinkingDoeReasonSeemsFallForceSocialNumbersStruggleImagineImpossibleFindingsRelationCirclesReason WhyContractsPerpetualFall BackSocial ContractAbsolutismPerpetual Motion
Book:General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century
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“In our worship of certainty we must distinguish between the sound certainty and the sham, between what is gold and what is tinsel; and then, when certainty is attained, we must remember that it is not the only good; that we can buy it at too high a price; that there is danger in perpetual quiescence as well as in perpetual motion; and that a compromise must be found in a principle of growth.”

WellsRememberFoundSoundGrowthPrinciplesDangerWorshipGoldCompromiseCertaintyPerpetualTinselPerpetual Motion
Author:Benjamin Cardozo
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“In whatever system where the weight attached to the wheel should be the cause of motion of the wheel, without any doubt the center of the gravity of the weight will stop beneath the center of its axle. No instrument devised by human ingenuity, which turns with its wheel, can remedy this effect. Oh, speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest. Go and take you place with the seekers after gold.”

ShouldHumansTurnsCausesDoubtEffectsGoldWeightInstrumentsVainWheelsGravityQuestsPerpetualRemedySeekersIngenuitySpeculatorsChimeraPerpetual Motion
Author:Leonardo da Vinci
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“I liked it. I liked her. And every time I saw her, she seemed more beautiful. She just seemed to glow. I'm not talking like a hundred-watt bulb; she just had this warmth to her. Maybe it came from climbing that tree. Maybe it came from singing to chickens. Maybe it came from whacking at two-by-fours and dreaming about perpetual motion. I don't know. All I know is that compared to her, Shelly and Miranda seemed so...ordinary.”

KnowsTwoDreamBeautifulTalkingSawsTreeSingingOrdinaryHundredChickensClimbingWarmthPerpetualNot TalkingBulbsMirandaFoursPerpetual MotionBryce Loski
Author:Wendelin Van Draanen
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“According to their [Newton and his followers] doctrine, God Almighty wants to wind up his watch from time to time: otherwise it would cease to move. He had not, it seems, sufficient foresight to make it a perpetual motion. Nay, the machine of God's making, so imperfect, according to these gentlemen; that he is obliged to clean it now and then by an extraordinary concourse, and even to mend it, as clockmaker mends his work.”

WantGodSeemsMovingWatchesWindMachinesCleanExtraordinaryCeaseDoctrineGentlemanSufficientFollowersImperfectionImperfectNow And ThenPerpetualAlmightyObligedNewtonForesightPerpetual Motion
Author:Gottfried Leibniz
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“All things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.”

KnowsWorldLittlesMadeStatesMovingScienceKnowledgeInformationAmountAll ThingsDistanceValuableSentencesEnormousAtomsPerpetualSuggestionsHypothesisParticlesScientific KnowledgeOne SentenceSingle SentencePerpetual MotionRepellingDistance Apart
Author:Richard P. Feynman
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“Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics.”

DoneGovernmentFallDemocracySucceedTricksExperimentsMeritSoilPerpetualMechanicPerpetual Motion
Book:Essays, English and American: With Introductions and Notes
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