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Michael Faraday
(22 Sep 1791 - 25 Aug 1867)
English physicist and chemist who was a great experimentalist. His major contributions included the early understanding of electromagnetism.
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Michael Faraday Quotes on Discovery (6 quotes)
>> Click for 59 Science Quotes by Michael Faraday
>> Click for Michael Faraday Quotes on | Candle | Electrolysis | Knowledge | Nomenclature |
>> Click for 59 Science Quotes by Michael Faraday
>> Click for Michael Faraday Quotes on | Candle | Electrolysis | Knowledge | Nomenclature |
I happen to have discovered a direct relation between magnetism and light, also electricity and light, and the field it opens is so large and I think rich.
— Michael Faraday
Letter to Christian Schönbein (13 Nov 1845), The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein, 1836-1862 (1899), 148.
I have rather, however, been desirous of discovering new facts and new relations dependent on magneto-electric induction, than of exalting the force of those already obtained; being assured that the latter would find their full development hereafter.
— Michael Faraday
Read 12 Jan 1832, reprinted from Philosophical Transactions of 1831-1828, in 'Second Series', Experimental Researches in Electricity: Volume 1 (1839), 47.
I think chemistry is being frittered away by the hairsplitting of the organic chemists; we have new compounds discovered, which scarcely differ from the known ones and when discovered are valueless—very illustrations perhaps of their refinements in analysis, but very little aiding the progress of true science.
— Michael Faraday
Letter to William Grove (5 Jan 1845), The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein, 1836-1862 (1899), Footnote, 209.
The laws of nature, as we understand them, are the foundation of our knowledge in natural things. So much as we know of them has been developed by the successive energies of the highest intellects, exerted through many ages. After a most rigid and scrutinizing examination upon principle and trial, a definite expression has been given to them; they have become, as it were, our belief or trust. From day to day we still examine and test our expressions of them. We have no interest in their retention if erroneous. On the contrary, the greatest discovery a man could make would be to prove that one of these accepted laws was erroneous, and his greatest honour would be the discovery.
— Michael Faraday
Experimental researches in chemistry and physics (1859), 469.
Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it!
Said to William Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he asked about the practical worth of electricity.
Said to William Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he asked about the practical worth of electricity.
— Michael Faraday
Quoted in R. A. Gregory, Discovery, Or The Spirit and Service of Science (1916), 3.
You can hardly imagine how I am struggling to exert my poetical ideas just now for the discovery of analogies & remote figures respecting the earth, Sun & all sorts of things—for I think it is the true way (corrected by judgement) to work out a discovery.
— Michael Faraday
Letter to C. Schrenbein, 13th Nov, 1845. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1996), Vol. 3, 428.
See also:
- 22 Sep - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Faraday's birth.
- Michael Faraday on Pollution of the River Thames - Letter to the Editor, The Times (7 July 1885).
- Michael Faraday - Light-House Illumination - The Electric Light
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “You will soon be able to tax it!” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “You will soon be able to tax it!” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
- Large color picture of Michael Faraday (800 x 1000 px)
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “Always cross-question an assertion” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “Always cross-question an assertion” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “I am jealous of the term atom” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Michael Faraday - context of quote “I am jealous of the term atom” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
- Michael Faraday - Scientific Worthy - article from Nature (1873)
- Michael Faraday, Christmas Lecturer - transcript of a 1940s radio talk by Charles F. Kettering.
- The Intangible in Human Progress - Michael Faraday mentioned in transcript of a 1940s radio talk by Charles F. Kettering.
- The Electric Life Of Michael Faraday, by Alan W. Hirshfeld. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Michael Faraday.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
