“The electron: may it never be of any use to anybody!”

— J. J. Thomson

A popular toast or slogan at J. J. Thomson's Cavendish Laboratory in the first years of the 1900s, as quoted in Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Volume 35 (1951), p. 251.
Attributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 3, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The electron: may it never be of any use to anybody!" by J. J. Thomson?

J. J. Thomson 8

British physicist 1856–1940

Related quotes

“if a shower of electrons is shot on to a zinc sulfide screen, a number of flashes are produced - one for each electron - and we may picture the electrons as bullet-like projectiles hitting a target. But if the same shower is made to pass near a suspended magnet, this is found to be deflected as the electrons go by. The electrons may now be pictured as octopus-like structures with tentacles or 'tubes of force' sticking out from it in every direction.”

James Jeans (1877–1946) British mathematician and astronomer

Physics and Philosophy (1942)

“I've never felt any sense of competition with anybody, and we're all friends. We're all good friends.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Page 67.
Interview with Judy Harris (1982)

“We are using electronic instruments both in the studio and on stage but we are not living in an ivory tower, banned from any kind of popularity doing just intellectual research on electronics. So we really like to entertain people in the best way possible to show how modern, sophisticated equipment can be used today in order to create a futuristic sound.”

Edgar Froese (1944–2015) German musician and founder of Tangerine Dream

“Anybody who has had experience of poetesses knows that they may forgive a punch on the jaw, but never a suggestion that they would be wiser to give up versifying.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

A Curmudgeon (1961).

“Others may doubt us. They may criticize us. They may try to deny us what is rightfully ours. But they will fail. And I promise you, as long as I am mayor, I will never back away from fighting any opponent -- or confronting any obstacle -- that would prevent our people from achieving all of their dreams in Our New York.”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

http://www.gothamgazette.com/searchlight/2004.state.of.city.bloomberg.shtml
Why He Was Elected Mayor

“When you sit in a chair, you are not actually sitting there, but levitating above it at a height of one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimetre), your electrons and its electrons implacably opposed to any closer intimacy.”

Bill Bryson book A Short History of Nearly Everything

Source: A Short History of Nearly Everything

“If there is any violations, we will take actions against anybody, anybody. I am ready to do that.”

Mahinda Rajapaksa (1945) Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Quoted in BBC News, "Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa hits out at critics" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24936948, November 14, 2013; and quoted from Indepentdent.ie, "Sri Lanka defends rights record" http://www.independent.ie/world-news/sri-lanka-defends-rights-record-29754169.html, 14 November, 2013.

“I've never heard anybody smile.”

William Zinsser (1922–2015) writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, professor

Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 10, Writing About People: The Interview, p. 74.

“Never care what anybody says.”

Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953) American screenwriter

Told to Oscar Levant, who admitted: "I took his advice with deleterious results."
Source: [Levant, Oscar, Oscar Levant, The Memoirs of an Amnesiac, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965, New York, 98]

“Never say of anybody under you: he is no good. It is you who are no good, for you cannot find a place where he will be of use.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975) Spanish theologian

#975
The Furrow (1986)

“The electron: may it never be of any use to anybody!”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

J. J. Thomson 8

Related quotes

Related topics