Oliver Heaviside Quotes

If it is love that makes the world go round, it is self-induction that makes electromagnetic waves go round the world.

Mathematics is an experimental science, and definitions do not come first, but later on.

Why should I refuse a good dinner simply because I don’t understand the digestive processes involved?

Mathematics is of two kinds, Rigorous and Physical. The former is Narrow: the latter Bold and Broad. To have to stop to formulate rigorous demonstrations would put a stop to most physico-mathematical inquiries. Am I to refuse to eat because I do not fully understand the mechanism of digestion?

Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?

Criticized for using formal mathematical manipulations, without understanding how they worked: Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?

Logic can be patient, for it is eternal.

The best result of mathematics is to be able to do without it.

Theory is the essence of facts. Without theory scientific knowledge would be only worthy of the madhouse.

Waves from moving sources: Adagio. Andante. Allegro moderato.

Now, in the development of our knowledge of the workings of Nature out of the tremendously complex assemblage of phenomena presented to the scientific inquirer, mathematics plays in some respects a very limited, in others a very important part. As regards the limitations, it is merely necessary to refer to the sciences connected with living matter, and to the ologies generally, to see that the facts and their connections are too indistinctly known to render mathematical analysis practicable, to say nothing of the complexity.

…there is no absolute scale of size in nature, and the small may be as important, or more so than the great.