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Quaternions came from Hamilton after his really good work had been done, and though beautifully ingenious, have been an unmixed evil to those who have touched them in any way.

— William Thomson Letter to Robert Baldwin Hayward (1892)

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More quotes by William Thomson

The beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory, which asserts heat and light to be modes of motion, is at present obscured by two clouds.

Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.

Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time.

Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.

Life of Lord Kelvin (1910)

To live among friends is the primary essential of happiness.

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