“Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it.”

— Michael Faraday

Faraday's purported reply to William Gladstone, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer (minister of finance), when asked of the practical value of electricity (1850) as quoted in Democracy and Liberty (1899) by William Edward Hartpole Lecky, p. xxxi , and in Discovery Or The Spirit And Service Of Science (1918) by R.A Gregory, p 3. The variant "One day sir, you may tax it." is given in The Harvest of a Quiet Eye : A Selection of Scientific Quotations (1977), p. 56, but they source it to Discovery which differs in its quote. According to Snopes in "Long Ago and Faraday" http://www.snopes.com/quotes/faraday.asp, it is most likely an invented quotation, as there are no contemporaneous records, though Lecky did live through the same time as Faraday and Gladstone. <br class="br">Disputed

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Michael Faraday30

English scientist 1791–1867

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“Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it.”

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Michael Faraday30

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