“The difficulties which would have to be overcome to make several of the preceding experiments conclusive are so great as to be almost insurmountable.”

—  J. J. Thomson

Warning about the non-conclusiveness for the experimental foundation of electrostatic theory, in a footnote of the third edition of: [James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Vol.1, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1891, 37]
Quotes eat me

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 9, 2026. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The difficulties which would have to be overcome to make several of the preceding experiments conclusive are so great a…" by J. J. Thomson?
J. J. Thomson photo
J. J. Thomson8
British physicist 1856–1940

Related quotes

George Stephenson photo

“George Stephenson told me as a young man that railways will supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country — when mail-coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highway for the king and all his subjects. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as you live.”

George Stephenson (1781–1848) English civil engineer and mechanical engineer

John Dixon, quoted by Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1875)

Henry Clay photo

“Precedents deliberately established by wise men are entitled to great weight. They are evidence of truth, but only evidence…But a solitary precedent…which has never been reexamined, cannot be conclusive.”

Henry Clay (1777–1852) American politician from Kentucky

Speech, Senate (18 February 1835).

Henry Adams photo

“Here, then, appeared in its fullest force, the practical difficulty in education which a mere student could never overcome; a difficulty not in theory, or knowledge, or even want of experience, but in the sheer chaos of human nature.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

“Unless a potential future incorporates a powerful emotional pull, it will have great difficulty overcoming the gravitational pull of the past.”

Tim Hurson (1946) Creativity theorist, author and speaker

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

Meher Baba photo

“Difficulties give us the opportunity to prove our greatness by overcoming them.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

Message dictated to Sanjeeva Reddy at Guruprasad (6 June 1960), as quoted in The God-Man : The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence and Spiritual Teaching (1964) by Charles Benjamin Purdom, p. 353 <!-- also quoted in The Silent Master : Meher Baba, Avatar of the Age (1987), by Irwin Luck, p. 15 -->
General sources
Context: It is better to deny God, than to defy God.
Sometimes our weakness is considered strength, and we take delight in borrowed greatness.
To profess to be a lover of God and then to be dishonest to God, to the world and to himself, is unparalleled hypocrisy. Difficulties give us the opportunity to prove our greatness by overcoming them.

John Stuart Mill photo

“Wisdom and contrivance are shown in overcoming difficulties, so there is no place for them in a Being for whom no difficulties exist”

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist

pages 176-177; Early Modern Texts page 16
Three Essays on Religion (posthumous publication), Theism, Part II: Attributes

Immanuel Kant photo

“Percepts and phenomena which precedes the logical use of the intellect is called appearance, while the reflex knowledge originating from several appearances compared by the intellect is called experience.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Kant's Inaugural Dissertation (1770), Section II On The Distinction Between The Sensible And The Intelligible Generally

Roger Bacon photo

“Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.”

Roger Bacon book Opus Majus

Opus Majus, c. 1267
Source: Robert Belle Burke (2002) The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon Part 2. p. 583

Confucius photo

“The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Variant: The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration: this may be called perfect virtue.
Source: The Analects, Other chapters

Terry Pratchett photo

“They felt, in fact, tremendously bucked-up, which was how Lady Ramkin would almost certainly have put it and which was definitely several letters of the alphabet away from how they normally felt.”

Terry Pratchett book Guards! Guards!

Source: Guards! Guards!

Related topics