"Experimental facts
alone cannot satisfy the mind: we desire to know the cause of the fact; we
search after the principle by the operation of which the phenomena are
produced." (John Tyndall, "Heat: A Mode of Motion", 1863)
"The aspects of
Nature provoke in man the spirit of inquiry. As the eye is formed to see, and
the ear to hear, so the human mind is formed to explore and understand the
basis and relationship of natural phenomena."
"To Nature nothing can be added; from Nature nothing can be taken away; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the applications of physical knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the never-varying total. The law of conservation rigidly excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may change to ripples, and ripples to waves; magnitude may be substituted for number, and number for magnitude; asteroids may aggregate to suns, suns may resolve themselves into florae and faunae, and floras and faunas melt in air: the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the ages, and all terrestrial energy - the manifestations of life as well as the display of phenomena - are but the modulations of its rhythm." (John Tyndall, "Conclusion of Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion: Being a Course of Twelve Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in the Season of 1862", 1863)
"Knowledge once gained casts a faint light beyond its own immediate boundaries." (John Tyndall, "On the Methods and Tendencies of Physical Investigation", 1870)
"You cannot crown the edifice by this abstraction. The scientific imagination, which is here authoritative, demands as the origin and cause of a series of ether waves a particle of vibrating matter quite as definite, though it may be excessively minute, as that which gives origin to a musical sound. Such a particle we name an atom or a molecule. I think the imagination when focused so as to give definition without penumbral haze, is sure to realise this image at last." (John Tyndall, "The Scientific Use of the Imagination", 1870)
"Ask your imagination if it will accept a vibrating multiple proportion - a numerical ratio in a state of oscillation? I do not think it will. You cannot crown the edifice with this abstraction. The scientific imagination, which is here authoritative, demands, as the origin and cause of a series of ether-waves, a particle of vibrating matter quite as definite, though it may be excessively minute, as that which gives origin to a musical sound. Such a particle we name an atom or a molecule. I think the intellect, when focused so as to give definition without penumbral haze, is sure to realize this image at the last." (John Tyndall, "Fragments of Science for Unscientific People", 1871)
"It is by a kind of
inspiration that we rise from the wise and sedulous contemplation of facts to
the principles on which they depend."
"The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infinitude of silence. The phenomena of matter and force lie within our intellectual range, and as far as they reach we will at all hazards push our inquiries. But behind, and above, and around all, the real mystery of this universe [Who made it all?] lies unsolved, and, as far as we are concerned, is incapable of solution." (John Tyndall, "Fragments of Science for Unscientific People", 1871)
"Truth is often of a dual character, taking the form of a magnet with two poles; and many of the differences which agitate the thinking part of mankind are to be traced to the exclusiveness with which partisan reasoners dwell upon one-half of the duality in forgetfulness of the other."(John Tyndall, "Fragments of Science for Unscientific People", 1871)
"Brightness and freshness take possession of the mind when it is crossed by the light of principles, shewing the facts of Nature to be organically connected." (John Tyndall, "Six Lectures on Light Delivered in America in 1872-1873" 3rd Ed., 1901)
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