Maxwell Quotes

• A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others. By John Maxwell

  John C. Maxwell

  Leadership, Successful, Persons

  John C. Maxwell (2011). “The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You”, Thomas Nelson

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• I was appalled to find that the mathematical notation on which I had been raised failed to fill the needs of the courses I was assigned, and I began work on extensions to notation that might serve. In particular, I adopted the matrix algebra used in my thesis work, the systematic use of matrices and higher-dimensional arrays (almost) learned in a course in Tensor Analysis rashly taken in my third year at Queen's, and (eventually) the notion of Operators in the sense introduced by Heaviside in his treatment of Maxwell's equations.

  Kenneth E. Iverson

  Queens, Taken, Years

  "Kenneth E. Iverson with Donald B. McIntyre". Autobiographical sketch from an unfinished work, keiapl.info. (ca. 2004).

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• The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell's equations of the electromagnetic field.

  Albert Einstein

  Special, Fields, Theory

  Albert Einstein, Stephen W. Hawking (2007). “A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein”, p.367, Running Press

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• From the outset Maxwell's theory excelled all others in elegance and in the abundance of the relations between the various phenomena which it included.

  Heinrich Hertz

  Abundance, Elegance, Theory

  Heinrich Hertz (1893). “Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space”

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• Maxwell is the physicist's physicist.

  Stephen Hawking

  Physicist

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• You haven't yet seen me be rude. When I am it's unmistakable. - Michelle Maxwell.

  David Baldacci

  Rude, Havens

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• If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

  Arthur Eddington

  Hope, Science, Errors

  "The Nature of the Physical World" by Arthur Eddington, (Ch. 4), 1928.

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• Maxwell is serious, dedicated, awkward, forgetful, pompous to a certain degree, sentimental.

  Don Adams

  Awkward, Degrees, Sentimental

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• The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.

  Paul Johnson

  Evil, Crooks, Toss

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• Now, since the time of Newton there had been a debate about whether light was a wave - that is, a traveling disturbance in some background medium - or a particle, which travels regardless of the presence of a background medium. The observation of Maxwell that electromagnetic waves must exist and that their speed was identical to that of light ended the debate: light was an electromagnetic wave.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Light, Debate, Speed

  "The Physics of Star Trek". Book by Lawrence M. Krauss, 1995.

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• James Clerk Maxwell's [work is the] most profound and the most fruitful.

  Albert Einstein

  Profound, Clerks

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• Actually, my favourite roles have been in theatre, but on TV, my faves were Slap Maxwell and Larry Sanders.

  Megan Gallagher

  Theatre, Roles, Tvs

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• Tell me it's never been done. Because the only real laws in this world-the only things we really know-are the two postulates of relativity, the three laws of Newton, the four laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell's equation-no, scratch that, the only things we really know are Maxwell's equations, the three laws of Newton, the two postulates of relativity, and the periodic table. That's all we know that's true. All the rest are man's laws

  Dean Kamen

  Real, Men, Law

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• This change in the conception of reality is the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton. Refering to James Clerk Maxwell's contributions to physics.

  Albert Einstein

  Reality, Profound, Clerks

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• Liebig himself seems to have occupied the role of a gate, or sorting-demon, such as his younger contemporary Clerk Maxwell once proposed, helping to concentrate energy into one favored room of the Creation at the expense of everything else.

  Thomas Pynchon

  Clerks, Energy, Roles

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• Here's to new blood." -Jagger Maxwell

  Ellen Schreiber

  Blood, Jagger

  Ellen Schreiber (2010). “Kissing Coffins”, p.6, Allen & Unwin

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• From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.

  Richard P. Feynman

  War, Discovery, Views

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.13, Princeton University Press

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• Maxwell's theory is Maxwell's system of equations.

  Heinrich Hertz

  Science, Theory, Equations

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• The rigid electron is in my view a monster in relation to Maxwell's equations, whose innermost harmony is the principle of relativity... the rigid electron is no working hypothesis, but a working hindrance. Approaching Maxwell's equations with the concept of the rigid electron seems to me the same thing as going to a concert with your ears stopped up with cotton wool. We must admire the courage and the power of the school of the rigid electron which leaps across the widest mathematical hurdles with fabulous hypotheses, with the hope to land safely over there on experimental-physical ground.

  Hermann Minkowski

  School, Science, Views

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• I'm looking for someone to quench my thirst-for all eternity" -Luna Maxwell

  Ellen Schreiber

  Eternity, Quench, Thirst

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• Who ... is not familiar with Maxwell's memoirs on his dynamical theory of gases? ... from one side enter the equations of state; from the other side, the equations of motion in a central field. Ever higher soars the chaos of formulae. Suddenly we hear, as from kettle drums, the four beats 'put n=5.' The evil spirit v vanishes; and ... that which had seemed insuperable has been overcome as if by a stroke of magic ... One result after another follows in quick succession till at last ... we arrive at the conditions for thermal equilibrium together with expressions for the transport coefficients.

  Ludwig Boltzmann

  Science, Expression, Evil

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• Many of my heroes, like Galileo, Maxwell, Newton and, less explicitly, Einstein thought what they were doing was finding out what God is. All of them had this inspiration that if you want to find out what God is, you have to look at his work.

  Frank Wilczek

  Inspiration, Hero, Looks

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• I venture to give an alternative method of regarding the processes occurring in the electric field, which I have often found useful and which is, from a mathematical point of view, equivalent to Maxwell's Theory.

  Joseph John Thomson

  Views, Giving, Alternatives

  Joseph John Thomson (2010). “Notes on Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism: Intended as a Sequel to Professor Clerk-Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”, p.1, Cambridge University Press

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• I don't think I fit the Marilyn Maxwell mode.

  Lee Grant

  Thinking, Fit

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• Maxwell's Equations have had a greater impact on human history than any ten presidents.

  Carl Sagan

  Impact, President, Equations

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