James Clerk Maxwell

"I believe that the average mind can grasp the fundamental principles of science without the use of mathematics."

"Life and work which do not depend on the labour of other men are what is most worth doing."

"We are all, in a sense, passing through a sieve. Some of us are refined by the process."

"The analogy between the electric field and an elastic medium gradually dawned upon me."

"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact."

"Before we can properly study the physics of the ethereal medium, we must acquire consistent ideas about its nature."

"The tendency of physical science is to become increasingly mathematical."

"Never trust a experiment until you have confirmed it with a theory."

"The distinction between cause and effect is a product of the human imagination."

"What makes the study of electricity so fascinating is that it opens up a world of invisible forces."

"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library."

"To translate physical phenomena into mathematical language is the true art of the physicist."

"The most fundamental law of Nature is that nothing whatever is created or lost. Everything is transformed."

"In every act of creation we experience something that is transcendent."

"Feynman once said of Maxwell that he was the most influential physicist of all time."

"The appreciation of the invisible world is the highest form of knowledge."

"We cannot see the magnetic field, yet we feel its effects and understand its power."

"The union of the mathematical with the physical imagination is the path forward."

"Every scientific truth must be capable of being stated in the simplest terms possible."

"We must learn to see the world through the eyes of mathematics and poetry alike."

"The beauty of a physical law lies not in its complexity but in its simplicity."

"To advance science, we must be willing to abandon cherished beliefs when evidence demands it."

"The electrostatic and magnetic phenomena are manifestations of the same fundamental force."

"In seeking the nature of light, we are seeking the nature of the universe itself."

"The person who makes no mistakes does not try hard enough."

"Colour, which is the poetry of light, plays a vital role in our understanding of the physical world."

"We should approach nature as a student approaches a master—with humility and reverence."

"The greatest discoveries come to those who observe the small things others overlook."

"Mathematics is not the sterile manipulation of symbols but the language of nature itself."

"To understand the electromagnetic nature of light is to understand the very fabric of reality."