Hermann von Helmholtz Quotes

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The universe has its limited supply of energy, which works in it under ever-varying forms, indestructible, incapable of increase, eternal, and unchangeable like matter.

Hermann von Helmholtz
The whole process of algebraical calculation is a purely logical operation; it can yield no relation between the quantities submitted to it that is not already contained in the equations which give occasion for its being applied.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Mathematics and music! the most glaring possible opposites of human thought! and yet connected, mutually sustained!

Hermann von Helmholtz
I then endeavoured to show that it is more especially in the thorough conformity with law which natural phenomena and natural products exhibit, and in the comparative ease with which laws can be stated, that this difference exists.

Hermann von Helmholtz
I think the facts leave no doubt that the very mightiest among the chemical forces are of electric origin. The atoms cling to their electric charges, and opposite electric charges cling to each other.

Hermann von Helmholtz
If an optician sent it [the eye] to me as an instrument, I would send it back with reproaches for the carelessness of his work and demand the return of my money.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Accurate experiments have shown that the quantity of heat which is developed by a chemical process - for instance, in burning a pound of pure carbon into carbonic acid - is perfectly constant, whether the combustion is slow or rapid, whether it takes place all at once or by intermediate stages.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Of all branches of human knowledge, there is none which, like it [geometry], has sprung as a completely armed Minerva from the head of Jupiter; none before whose death-dealing Aegis doubt and inconsistency have so little dared to raise their eyes.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Time does not sleep when all things sleep, Only Time stands straight when all things fall. Is, was, and shall be are Time's Children. Is, was, and shall be are Time's Children.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Happy ideas come unexpectedly without effort like an inspiration, as far as I am concerned. They have never come to me when my mind was fatigued or when I was at my working table.

Hermann von Helmholtz
In speaking of the work of machines and of natural forces we must, of course, in this comparison eliminate anything in which activity of intelligence comes into play. The latter is also capable of the hard and intense work of thinking, which tries a man just as muscular exertion does.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Just as a physicist has to examine the telescope and galvanometer with which he is working; has to get a clear conception of what he can attain with them, and how they may deceive him; so, too, it seemed to me necessary to investigate likewise the capabilities of our power of thought.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Not that I wish by any means to deny, that the mental life of individuals and peoples is also in conformity with law, as is the object of philosophical, philological, historical, moral, and social sciences to establish.

Hermann von Helmholtz
The ultimate aim of physical science must be to demonstrate the movements which are the real causes of all other phenomena and discover the motive powers on which they all depend; in other words, to merge itself into mechanics.

Hermann von Helmholtz
If we accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are composed of atoms, we cannot avoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well as negative, is divided into definite elementary portions, which behave like atoms of electricity.

Hermann von Helmholtz
To flee into an ideal world is a false resource of transient success; it only facilitates the play of the adversary; and when knowledge only reflects itself, it becomes unsubstantial and empty, or resolves itself into illusions and phrase.

Hermann von Helmholtz
A metaphysical conclusion is either a false conclusion or a concealed experimental conclusion.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain. All that science can achieve is a perfect knowledge and a perfect understanding of the action of natural and moral forces.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Physico-Mechanical laws are, as it were, the telescopes of our spiritual eyes which can penetrate into the deepest night of time, past and to come.

Hermann von Helmholtz
It [geometry] escapes the tedious and troublesome task of collecting experimental facts, which is the province of the natural sciences in the strict sense of the word; the sole form of its scientific method is deduction.

Hermann von Helmholtz
There can no longer be any doubt that light waves consist of electric vibrations in the all-pervading ether, and that the latter possesses the properties of an insulator and a magnetic medium.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Heat can also be produced by the impact of imperfectly elastic bodies as well as by friction. This is the case, for instance, when we produce fire by striking flint against steel, or when an iron bar is worked for some time by powerful blows of the hammer.

Hermann von Helmholtz
Nature as a whole possesses a store of force which cannot in any way be either increased or diminished... therefore, the quantity of force in Nature is just as eternal and unalterable as the quantity of matter.... I have named [this] general law "The Principle of the Conservation of Force."

Hermann von Helmholtz
The world of ice and of eternal snow, as unfolded to us on the summits of the neighbouring Alpine chain, so stern, so solitary, so dangerous, it may be, has yet its own peculiar charm.

Hermann von Helmholtz
A single remarkable discovery may, of course, be the result of a happy accident and may not indicate the possession of any special gift on the part of the discoverer...

Hermann von Helmholtz