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Velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electromagnetic experiments of 'MM'. Kohlrausch and Weber, agrees so exactly with the velocity of light calculated from the optical experiments of M. Fizeau, that we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.

— James Clerk Maxwell Lecture at Kings College (1862)

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More quotes by James Clerk Maxwell

I hope that you will not tell me you have little fault to find with me, without finding that little and communicating it.

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In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data.

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Heat may be generated and destroyed by certain processes, and this shows that heat is not a substance.

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But we have no right to think thus of the unsearchable riches of creation, or of the untried fertility of those fresh minds into which these riches will continue to be poured.

To prove the laws of motion by the law of gravitation would be an inversion of scientific order. We might as well prove the law of addition of numbers by the differential calculus.

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