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The vortex theory [of the atom] is only a dream. Itself unproven, it can prove nothing, and any speculations founded upon it are mere dreams about dreams.

Lord Kelvin

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Lord Kelvin
Age: 83 †
Born: 1824
Born: June 26
Died: 1907
Died: December 17
Astronomer
Mathematician
Physicist
Politician
Scientist
University Teacher
Belfast
Ireland
The Lord Kelvin
Lord Kelvin
William Thomson
William (Lord Kelvin) Thomson
Dream
Founded
Nothing
Atoms
Mere
Prove
Unproven
Dreams
Speculations
Theory
Vortex
Upon
Atom
Science
Speculation

More quotes by Lord Kelvin

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Science is bound, by the everlasting vow of honour, to face fearlessly every problem which can be fairly presented to it.
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Questions of personal priority, however interesting they may be to the persons concerned, sink into insignificance in the prospect of any gain of deeper insight into the secrets of nature.
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I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their numerical magnitude.
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[Of the ether] it is no greater mystery at all events than the shoemakers' wax.
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The more thoroughly I conduct scientific research, the more I believe that science excludes atheism.
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Overwhelmingly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie around us... the atheistic idea is so nonsensical that I cannot put it into words.
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Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.
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To measure is to know.
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Fourier is a mathematical poem.
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You know only insofar as you can measure.
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If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.
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When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.
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Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific imagination, a less lofty and dignified work than looking for something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries of science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement and patient long-continued labour in the minute sifting of numerical results.
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There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application.
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Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
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Symmetrical equations are good in their place, but ' vector ' is a useless survival, or offshoot from quaternions, and has never been of the slightest use to any creature.
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I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism.
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Nothing can be more fatal to progress than a too confident reliance on mathematical symbols for the student is only too apt to take the easier course, and consider the formula not the fact as the physical reality.
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Suppose that you could mark the molecules in a glass of water then pour the contents of the glass into the ocean and stir the latter throughly so as to distribute the marked molecules uniformly throughout the seven seas if then you took a glass of water anywhere out of the ocean, you would find in it about a hundred of your marked molecules.
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If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.
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