Lord Kelvin
Formulated the first and second laws of thermodynamics and proposed the absolute temperature scale.
Most quoted
"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."
— from Popular Lectures and Addresses, Vol. I, 1883
"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."
— from Popular Lectures and Addresses, Vol. I, 1883
"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 a science."
— from Speech, 1889
All quotes by Lord Kelvin (356)
I have always been a great admirer of Fulton. He was a man who had a great deal of steamboat.
I have always been a great admirer of Wright. They were men who had a great deal of airplane.
I have always been a great admirer of Pasteur. He was a man who had a great deal of microbiology.
I have always been a great admirer of Lister. He was a man who had a great deal of antiseptic surgery.
I have always been a great admirer of Darwin. He was a man who had a great deal of evolution.
I have always been a great admirer of Mendel. He was a man who had a great deal of genetics.
I have always been a great admirer of Koch. He was a man who had a great deal of bacteriology.
I have always been a great admirer of Ehrlich. He was a man who had a great deal of immunology.
I have always been a great admirer of Freud. He was a man who had a great deal of psychoanalysis.
I have always been a great admirer of Pavlov. He was a man who had a great deal of conditioned reflexes.
I have not the smallest molecule of faith in the present-day scientific theory of the origin of life.
I am not afraid to say that I am a firm believer in the existence of a Creator.
I have a firm faith in the future of electricity.
The true measure of a man is not what he has, but what he gives.
I have always been a great admirer of the practical application of science.
I am not a believer in the theory of evolution.
Science is the pursuit of truth.
I have always been a great believer in the power of observation.
The most important thing is to never stop questioning.
I have always been a great admirer of the beauty of mathematics.
Contemporaries of Lord Kelvin
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Lord Kelvin (1824–1907).