On Energy (1910-1919)

"Though the ultimate state of the universe may be its vital and psychical extinction, there is nothing in physics to interfere with the hypothesis that the penultimate state might be the millennium - in other words a state in which a minimum of difference of energy - level might have its exchanges so skillfully canalises that a maximum of happy and virtuous consciousness would be the only result." (William James, [Letter to Henry Adams] 1910)

"The laws expressing the relations between energy and matter are, however, not solely of importance in pure science. They necessarily come first in order [...] in the whole record of human experience, and they control, in the last resort, the rise or fall of political systems, the freedom or bondage of nations, the movements of commerce and industry, the origin of wealth and poverty, and the general physical welfare of the race." (Frederick Soddy, "Matter and Energy", 1912)

"What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason." (Ralph W Emerson, "Miscellanies, Natural history of intellect", 1912)

"For thought raised on specialization the most potent objection to the possibility of a universal organizational science is precisely its universality. Is it ever possible that the same laws be applicable to the combination of astronomic worlds and those of biological cells, of living people and the waves of the ether, of scientific ideas and quanta of energy? [...] Mathematics provide a resolute and irrefutable answer: yes, it is undoubtedly possible, for such is indeed the case. Two and two homogenous separate elements amount to four such elements, be they astronomic systems or mental images, electrons or workers; numerical structures are indifferent to any element, there is no place here for specificity." (Alexander Bogdanov, "Tektology: The Universal Organizational Science" Vol. I, 1913)

"There is no force inherent in living matter, no vital force independent of and differing from the cosmic forces; the energy which living matter gives off is counterbalanced by the energy which it receives." (William T Councilman, "Disease and its Causes", 1913

"The miracles of religion are to be discredited, not because we cannot conceive of them, but because they run counter to all the rest of our knowledge; while the mysteries of science, such as chemical affinity, the conservation of energy, the indivisibility of the atom, the change of the non-living into the living […] extend the boundaries of our knowledge, though the modus operandi of the changes remains hidden." (John Burroughs, "Scientific Faith", The Atlantic Monthly, 1915)

"There is a conservation of matter and of energy, there may be a conservation of life; or if not of life, of something which transcends life." (Oliver J Lodge, "Christopher: A Study in Human Personality", 1918)

"If Thought is capable of being classed with Electricity, or Will with chemical affinity, as a mode of motion, it seems necessary to fall at once under the second law of thermodynamics as one of the energies which most easily degrades itself, and, if not carefully guarded, returns bodily to the cheaper form called Heat. Of all possible theories, this is likely to prove the most fatal to Professors of History." (Henry Adams, "The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma", 1919)

"There is a conservation of matter and of energy, there may be a conservation of life; or if not of life, of something which transcends life." (Oliver J Lodge, "Christopher: A Study in Human Personality", 1918)