The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

“We must not suppose that the inner history of our planet is ended.”

“The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell Vol.2 (1890)*oogleBooks”

“The labour of drilling classes composed chiefly of young and untrained lads, in the elements of mechanics and physics, was not the work for which Maxwell was specifically fitted.”

“The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1965) Dover edition, two volumes bound as one*rchive.org”

“It must be one of our most constant aims to maintain a living connexion between our work and the other liberal studies of Cambridge, whether literary, philological, historical or philosophical.”

“During his undergraduateship he had... found time for the study of Electricity. This had already borne fruit and now resulted in the first important memoirs on that subject,—the memoir on Faraday's Lines of Force.”

“The labour of careful measurement has been rewarded by the discovery of new fields of research, and by the development of new scientific ideas... the history of the science of terrestrial magnetism affords us a sufficient example...”

“The student who uses home made apparatus, which is always going wrong, often learns more than one who has the use of carefully adjusted instruments, to which he is apt to trust and which he dares not take to pieces.”

“The knowledge of physical science obtained by the combined use of mathematical analysis and experimental research will be of a more solid, available, and enduring kind than that possessed by the mere mathematician or the mere experimenter.”

“The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell Vol.1, Vol.2 (1890)”

“In January, 1854, Maxwell's undergraduate career closed. He was second wrangler, but shared with Dr Routh, who was senior wrangler, the honor of the first Smith's prize. In due course he was elected fellow of Trinity and place on the staff of College Lecturers.”

“There is no more powerful method for introducing knowledge into the mind than that of presenting it in as many different ways as we can. When the ideas, after entering through different gateways, effect a junction in the citadel of the mind, the position they occupy becomes impregnable.”

“A man whose soul is in his work always makes more progress than one whose aim is something not immediately connected with his occupation. In the latter case the very motive of which he makes use to stimulate his flagging powers becomes the means of distracting his mind from the work before him.”

“The history of science is not restricted to the enumeration of successful investigations. It has to tell of unsuccessful inquiries, and to explain why some of the ablest men have failed to find the key of knowledge, and how the reputation of others has only given a firmer footing to the errors into which they fell.”

“Now in the case of study, a great part of our fatigue often arises, not from those mental efforts by which we obtain the mastery of the subject, but from those which are spent in recalling our wandering thoughts; and these efforts of attention would be much less fatiguing if the disturbing force of mental distraction could be removed.”

“It has been asserted that metaphysical speculation is a thing of the past and that physical science has extirpated it. The discussion of the categories of existence, however, does not appear to be in danger of coming to an end in our time, and the exercise of speculation continues as fascinating to every fresh mind as it was in the days of Thales.”

“Whenever the subject admitted of it he had recourse to diagrams, though his fellow students might solve the question more easily by a train of analysis. Many illustrations of this... might be taken from his writings, but in truth it was only one phase of his mental attitude towards scientific questions, which led him to proceed from one distinct idea to another instead of trusting to symbols and equations.”

“Science appears to us with a very different aspect after we have found out that it is not in lecture rooms only, and by means of the electric light projected on a screen, that we may witness physical phenomena, but that we may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion.”

“In experimental researches... the ultimate object is to measure something which we have already seen—to obtain a numerical estimate of some magnitude. ...we must find out which of its features are capable of measurement, and what measurements are required in order to make a complete specification of the phenomenon. We must then make these measurements and deduce from them the result which we require to find.”

“The aim of an experiment of illustration is to throw light upon some scientific idea so that the student may be able to grasp it. ...the phenomenon which we wish to observe or to exhibit is brought into prominence, instead of being obscured and entangled among other phenomena, as it would when it occurs in the ordinary course of nature. ...The educational value of such experiments is often inversely proportional to the complexity of the apparatus.”