Josiah Willard Gibbs Quotes

I wish to know systems.

Anyone having these desires will make these researches.

His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.

A mathematician may say anything he pleases, but a physicist must be at least partially sane.

The laws of thermodynamics, as empirically determined, express the approximate and probable behavior of systems of a great number of particles, or, more precisely, they express the laws of mechanics for such systems as they appear to beings who have not the fineness of perception to enable them to appreciate quantities of the order of magnitude of those which relate to single particles, and who cannot repeat their experiments often enough to obtain any but the most probable results.

The whole is simpler than its parts.

If I have had any success in mathematical physics, it is, I think, because I have been able to dodge mathematical difficulties.

Mathematics is a language.

In all these papers we see a love of honest work, an aversion to shams, a caution in the enunciation of conclusions, a distrust of rash generalizations and speculations based on uncertain premises. He was never anxious to add one more guess on doubtful matters in the hope of hitting the truth, or what might pass as such for a time, but was always ready to take infinite pains in the most careful testing of every theory. With these qualities was united a modesty which forbade the pushing of his own claims and desired no reputation except the unsought tribute of competent judges.

We avoid the gravest difficulties when, giving up the attempt to frame hypotheses concerning the constitution of matter, we pursue statistical inquiries as a branch of rational mechanics.

One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.