At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Each individual fact, taken by itself, can indeed arouse our curiosity or our astonishment, or be useful to us in its practical applications.

Hermann von Helmholtz

A raised weight can produce work, but in doing so it must necessarily sink from its height, and, when it has fallen as deep as it can fall, its gravity remains as before, but it can no longer do work.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Music stands in a much closer connection with pure sensation than any of the other arts.

Hermann von Helmholtz

The smallest quantity of alcohol scares away novel ideas.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Isolated facts and experiments have in themselves no value, however great their number may be.

Hermann von Helmholtz

A metaphysical conclusion is either a false conclusion or a concealed experimental conclusion.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Music strikes the ear as a perfectly undisturbed uniform sound which remains unaltered as long as it exists.

Hermann von Helmholtz

They only become valuable in a theoretical or practical point of view when they make us acquainted with the law of a series of uniformly recurring phenomena, or, it may be.

Hermann von Helmholtz

The total quantity of all the forces capable of work in the whole universe remains eternal and unchanged throughout all their changes.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Reason we call that faculty innate in us of discovering laws and applying them with thought.

Hermann von Helmholtz