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Heinrich Hertz Quotes

I do not think that the radio waves I have discovered will have any practical application.

I do not think that the radio waves I have discovered will have any practical application.

Heinrich Hertz
Science, Thinking, Radio Waves

One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers.

Heinrich Hertz
Independent, Math, Feelings

I grow increasingly aware, and in more ways than expected that I am at the center of my own field; and whether it be folly or wisdom, it is a very pleasant feeling.

Heinrich Hertz
Science, Feelings, Way
Heinrich Hertz, Johanna Hertz (1977). “Heinrich Hertz: Memoirs, Letters Diaries”, San Francisco Pr

Outside our consciousness there lies the cold and alien world of actual things. Between the two stretches the narrow borderland of the senses. No communication between the two worlds is possible excepting across the narrow strip. For a proper understanding of ourselves and of the world, it is of the highest importance that this borderland should be thoroughly explored.

Heinrich Hertz
Lying, Communication, Science
Heinrich Hertz (1896). “Miscellaneous Papers”

The rigour of science requires that we distinguish well the undraped figure of Nature itself from the gay-coloured vesture with which we clothe her at our pleasure.

Heinrich Hertz
Gay, Pleasure, Figures
"Nature", Vol. 51, Nature Publishing Group, letter by Ludwig Boltzmann, 1895.

Sometimes I really regret that I did not live in those times when there was still so much that was new; to be sure enough much is yet unknown, but I do not think that it will be possible to discover anything easily nowadays that would lead us to revise our entire outlook as radically as was possible in the days when telescopes and microscopes were still new.

Heinrich Hertz
Regret, Thinking, Telescopes

Maxwell's theory is Maxwell's system of equations.

Heinrich Hertz
Science, Theory, Maxwell

In my work I now have the comfortable feeling that I am so to speak on my own ground and territory and almost certainly not competing in an anxious race and that I shall not suddenly read in the literature that someone else had done it all long ago. It is really at this point that the pleasure of research begins, when one is, so to speak, alone with nature and no longer worries about human opinions, views and demands. To put it in a way that is more learned than clear: the philological aspect drops out and only the philosophical remains.

Heinrich Hertz
Nature, Philosophical, Hard Work
"Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher". Book by Davis Baird, R.I.G. Hughes and Alfred Nordmann, 1998.

I also require much time to ponder over the matters themselves, and particularly the principles of mechanics (as the very words: force, time, space, motion indicate) can occupy one severely enough; likewise, in mathematics, the meaning of imaginary quantities, of the infinitesimally small and infinitely large and similar matters.

Heinrich Hertz
Science, Space, Principles

From the outset Maxwell's theory excelled all others in elegance and in the abundance of the relations between the various phenomena which it included.

Heinrich Hertz
Abundance, Elegance, Theory
Heinrich Hertz (1893). “Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space”

Our confused wish finds expression in the confused question as to the nature of force and electricity. But the answer which we want is not really an answer to this question. It is not by finding out more and fresh relations and connections that it can be answered; but by removing the contradictions existing between those already known, and thus perhaps by reducing their number. When these painful contradictions are removed, the question as to the nature of force will not have been answered; but our minds, no longer vexed, will cease to ask illegitimate questions.

Heinrich Hertz
Nature, Confused, Knowledge

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