« All Second Law Quotes · James Clerk Maxwell's Page

Second Law Quotes by James Clerk Maxwell

1 Second Law quote by James Clerk Maxwell

We define thermodynamics...as the investigation of the dynamical and thermal properties of bodies, deduced entirely from the first and second law of thermodynamics, without speculation…

More Quotes by James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell has 51 quotes on this site. A few more worth reading:

Accordingly, we find Euler and D'Alembert devoting their talent and their patience to the establishment of the laws of rotation of the…
In the heavens we discover [stars] by their light, and by their light alone ... the sole evidence of the existence of…
But when we face the great questions about gravitation Does it require time? Is it polar to the 'outside of the universe'…
Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which tend to modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the arrangements…
In Science, it is when we take some interest in the great discoverers and their lives that it becomes endurable, and only…
It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is…
Science appears to us with a very different aspect after we have found out that it is not in lecture rooms only,…
Thus science strips off, one after the other, the more or less gross materialisations by which we endeavour to form an objective…
The dimmed outlines of phenomenal things all merge into one another unless we put on the focusing-glass of theory, and screw it…
The experimental investigation by which Ampere established the law of the mechanical action between electric currents is one of the most brilliant…
The popularisation of scientific doctrines is producing as great an alteration in the mental state of society as the material applications of…
Very few of us can now place ourselves in the mental condition in which even such philosophers as the great Descartes were…

See all 51 quotes by James Clerk Maxwell »

More Second Law Quotes

Popular Second Law quotes from across the collection:

Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases. — Norman Ralph Augustine
Evolution in the biosphere is therefore a necessarily irreversible process defining a direction in time; a direction which is the same as… — Jacques Monod
There is only one law of Nature-the second law of thermodynamics-which recognises a distinction between past and future more profound than the… — Arthur Eddington
If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations-then so much the… — Arthur Eddington
Cost is always an object - the second law of thermodynamics sees to that — Daniel Dennett
For complex reasons, our culture allows "economy" to mean only "money economy." It equates success and even goodness with monetary profit because… — Wendell Berry
There's a better scientific consensus on this than on any issue I know - except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics...Man has… — Unknown Author
There are two laws that we had better take to be absolute. The first is that as we cannot exempt ourselves from… — Wendell Berry
Newman's second law: Just when things look darkest, they go black. — Paul Newman
Just like a computer, we must remember things in the order in which entropy increases. This makes the second law of thermodynamics… — Stephen Hawking
At such moments, you realize that you and the other are, in fact, one. It's a big realization. Survival is the second… — Joseph Campbell
Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes, and the second law of thermodynamics. — Seth Lloyd

See all Second Law Quotes »

Browse James Clerk Maxwell Quotes by Category