35 Quotes by Hermann von Helmholtz

Isolated facts and experiments have in themselves no value, however great their number may be. They only become valuable in a theoretical or practical point of view when they make us acquainted with the law of a series of uniformly recurring phenomena, or, it may be, only give a negative result showing an incompleteness in our knowledge of such a law, till then held to be perfect.

The smallest quantity of alcohol scares away novel ideas.

Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain.

All that science can achieve is a perfect knowledge and a perfect understanding of the action of natural and moral forces.

Music stands in a much closer connection with pure sensation than any of the other arts.

The quantity of force which can be brought into action in the whole of Nature is unchangeable, and can neither be increased nor diminished.

The originator of a new concept...finds, as a rule, that it is much more difficult to find out why other people do not understand him, than it was to discover the new truth.

Windmills, which are used in the great plains of Holland and North Germany to supply the want of falling water, afford another instance of the action of velocity. The sails are driven by air in motion – by wind.