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Discrepancy between theory and practice, which in sound physical and mechanical science is a delusion, has a real existence in the minds of men; and that fallacy, through rejected by their judgments, continues to exert and influence over their acts.

— William John Macquorn Rankine Introductory Lecture on the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics (1856)

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Source: "Introductory Lecture on the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics" (1856), p. 4
Work: Introductory Lecture on the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics, 1856
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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The ascertainment and illustration of truth are the objects; and structures and machines are looked upon merely as natural bodies are; namely, as furnishing experimental data for the ascertaining of principles and examples for their application.

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The most absurd of all their delusions commonly called the perpetual motion, or to speak more accurately, the inexhaustible source of power—is, in various forms, the subject of several patents in each year.

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