“I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.”

A man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong.

Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds.

There’s nothing quite as frightening as someone who knows they are right.

I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can’t say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up.

Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it! Said to William Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he asked about the practical worth of electricity.

Magnetic lines of force convey a far better and purer idea than the phrase magnetic current or magnetic flood: it avoids the assumption of a current or of two currents and also of fluids or a fluid, yet conveys a full and useful pictorial idea to the mind.

Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties.

A centre of excellence is, by definition, a place where second class people may perform first class work.

But still try, for who knows what is possible?

There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

All are sure in their days except the most wise. He is the wisest philosopher who holds his theory with some doubt.

Why will people go astray when they have this blessed Book to guide them?

I cannot conceive curved lines of force without the conditions of a physical existence in that intermediate space.

Who would not have been laughed at if he had said in 1800 that metals could be extracted from their ores by electricity or that portraits could be drawn by chemistry.

It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.

The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.

Even when I’m in quite a happy state of mind, I like writing really sad songs. I think a lot of people do.

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

The higher the goal, the harder the climb, but after that the bigger the muscle the, smarter the mind.

You can’t plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind.

The time to make up your mind about people is never.

The secret of happiness is in a cheerful, contented mind. He is poor who is dissatisfied; he is rich who is contented with what he has, and can enjoy what others own.

The haven all memes depend on reaching is the human mind, but a human mind is itself an artifact created when memes restructure a human brain in order to make it a better habitat for memes.

We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it including the thorns.