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One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers, that we get more out of them than was originally put into them.

— Heinrich Hertz Morris Kline (1980)

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More quotes by Heinrich Hertz

The rigour of science requires that we distinguish well the undraped figure of Nature itself from the gay-coloured vesture with which we clothe her at our pleasure.

It's of no use whatsoever. This is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right—we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there.

If we wish to lend more color to the theory, there is nothing to prevent us from supplementing all this and aiding our powers of imagination by concrete representations of the various conceptions as to the nature of electric polarisation, the electric current, etc.

Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space (1893)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Heinrich Hertz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.