Quotes about electricity page 5
Robert Heller (1932–2012) British magician
Robert Heller (2001) Jack Welch Dorling Kindersley Pub.
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic
"Duel in the Sun," p. 206.
5001 Nights at the Movies (1982)
John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State
Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter XXXV, Section 3, p. 394
Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Budget speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1934/apr/17/financial-statement in the House of Commons (17 April 1934) <br class="br">Chancellor of the Exchequer
Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones
[Denyer, Ralph, The Guitar Handbook, 2002, 66, 0-679-74275-1]
John Brunner book The Sheep Look Up
”But don’t you think you should have known it?” Austin Train inquired gently.
September “MINE ENEMIES ARE DELIVERED INTO MY HAND”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
Klaus Kinski (1926–1991) German actor
On Werner Herzog, p. 213
Kinski Uncut : The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski (1996)
Albert Speer (1905–1981) German architect, Minister of Armaments and War Production for Nazi Germany
Source: Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs (1970), p. 427-428
Daniel Dennett book Consciousness Explained
I asked, and he replied, "No, I already told you — I hate rock music."</p>
Source: Consciousness Explained (1991), p. 58-59
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement
Original Italian text:
Avevamo vegliato tutta la notte — i miei amici ed io — sotto lampade di moschea dalle cupole di ottone traforato, stellate come le nostre anime, perchè come queste irradiate dal chiuso fulgòre di un cuore elettrico. Avevamo lungamente calpestata su opulenti tappeti orientali la nostra atavica accidia, discutendo davanti ai confini estremi della logica ed annerendo molta carta di frenetiche scritture.
Source: 1900's, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism' 1909, p. 49 Lead paragraph
Tim Powers book Expiration Date
“I don’t know—we’d have the Ashtray of Turin.”
Source: Expiration Date (1995), Chapter 40 (p. 308; ellipsis represents a minor elision of description)
Lewis Mumford book The Myth of the Machine
Megatechnic Costs and Benefits
The Myth of the Machine (1967-1970), The Pentagon of Power (1970)
George Goodman (1930–2014) American author and economics commentator
Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 10, Can Footprints Predict The Future?, p. 128
“Flav, you look like a skeleton wrapped in electrical tape.”
Greg Giraldo (1965–2010) American comedian
Flavor Flav Comedy Central Roast (2007)
Frank Wilczek (1951) physicist
Source: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (1987), Ch.8 The Weak Interaction
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement
Original Italian text:
Noi canteremo le grandi folle agitate dal lavoro, dal piacere o dalla sommossa: canteremo le maree multicolori e polifoniche delle rivoluzioni nelle capitali moderne; canteremo il vibrante fervore notturno degli arsenali e dei cantieri incendiati da violente lune elettriche; le stazioni ingorde, divoratrici di serpi che fumano; le officine appese alle nuvole pei contorti fili dei loro fumi; i ponti simili a ginnasti giganti che scavalcano i fiumi, balenanti al sole con un luccichio di coltelli; i piroscafi avventurosi che fiutano l'orizzonte, le locomotive dall'ampio petto, che scalpitano sulle rotaie, come enormi cavalli d'acciaio imbrigliati di tubi, e il volo scivolante degli aereoplani, la cui elica garrisce al vento come una bandiera e sembra applaudire come una folla entusiasta.
Source: 1900's, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism' 1909, p. 52 : Last bullet-item in THE MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
1960s, Playboy Interview (1969)
Willem de Sitter (1872–1934) Dutch cosmologist
Kosmos (1932), Above is Beginning Quote of the Last Chapter: Relativity and Modern Theories of the Universe -->
Jean-Étienne Montucla (1725–1799) French mathematician
Source: Preface to Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. (1803), p. vi; As cited in: Tobias George Smollett. The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature http://books.google.com/books?id=T8APAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA412, Volume 38, (1803), p. 412
Giacomo Balla (1871–1958) Italian artist
(Manuscript, 1913); as quoted at dekorera.tumblr: Futurist manifesto of men's clothing http://dekorera.tumblr.com/post/3212646425/futurist-manifesto-of-mens-clothing-by-giacomo <br class="br">Futurist Manifesto of Men's clothing,' 1913/1914
“Electric eels I might add do it,
Though it shocks 'em I know…”
Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter
"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love"
Paris (1928)
Charles A. Beard (1874–1948) American historian
Source: Philosophy, Science and Art of Public Administration (1939), p. 661
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister
Morarji Desai speaks about life and celibacy
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Letter to Edward T. Hall, 1971, Letters of Marshall McLuhan, p. 397
1970s
“The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Source: 1960s, Understanding Media (1964), p. 8
Joseph Priestley book The History and Present State of Electricity
Preface
The History and Present State of Electricity (1767)
Context: The History of Electricity is a field full of pleasing objects, according to all the genuine and universal principles of taste, deduced from a knowledge of human nature. Scenes like these, in which we see a gradual rise and progress in things, always exhibit a pleasing spectacle to the human mind. Nature, in all her delightful walks, abounds with such views, and they are in a more especial manner connected with every thing that relates to human life and happiness; things, in their own nature, the most interesting to us. Hence it is, that the power of association has annexed crowds of pleasing sensations to the contemplation of every object, in which this property is apparent.
This pleasure, likewise, bears a considerable resemblance to that of the sublime, which is one of the most exquisite of all those that affect the human imagination. For an object in which we see a perpetual progress and improvement is, as it were, continually rising in its magnitude; and moreover, when we see an actual increase, in a long period of time past, we cannot help forming an idea of an unlimited increase in futurity; which is a prospect really boundless, and sublime.
Shakira (1977) Colombian singer
Speaking of her her educational foundation, Pias Descalzos (Barefoot), which was named after her third album and has just opened its sixth school in Cartagena, Colombia.
Context: It’s in an area where there’s a huge population of displaced people – refugees in their own country. It’s a very impoverished area, where kids have no access to a high-quality education programme. So we just inaugurated this school for 1,700 students. And it’s already showing the kind of transformational power that education has. It’s already having an enormous social impact on this area. Before this school, there was no paved roads, or potable water, or electricity. And now all of this has changed, because of this alliance that we have created between our foundation, the private sector, and the [national] and local governments. And you know, it was recently reported that the gangs that used to hang in this area have dissolved completely since the school was built. So that is the kind of social impact that these kind of projects have. And that is why I vehemently and passionately advocate for education and for the construction of schools that are state-of-the-art – and that are open to the community … Thatis the whole philosophy that we have in our foundation.
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) American psychologist
The Purpose of Life is Religious Discovery
Start your own Religion (1967)
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Supreme Court Justice
Other People's Money—and How Bankers Use It (1914).
Extra-judicial writings
Context: Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.
“Those who seem overladen with electricity frighten those around them.”
Margaret Fuller book Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
Context: The electrical, the magnetic element in Woman has not been fairly brought out at any period. Everything might be expected from it; she has far more of it than Man. This is commonly expressed by saying that her intuitions are more rapid and more correct. You will often see men of high intellect absolutely stupid in regard to the atmospheric changes, the fine invisible links which connect the forms of life around them, while common women, if pure and modest, so that a vulgar self do not overshadow the mental eye, will seize and delineate these with unerring discrimination.
Women who combine this organization with creative genius are very commonly unhappy at present. They see too much to act in conformity with those around them, and their quick impulses seem folly to those who do not discern the motives. This is an usual effect of the apparition of genius, whether in Man or Woman, but is more frequent with regard to the latter, because a harmony, an obvious order and self-restraining decorum, is most expected from her.
Then women of genius, even more than men, are likely to be enslaved by an impassioned sensibility. The world repels them more rudely, and they are of weaker bodily frame.
Those who seem overladen with electricity frighten those around them.
George Pólya (1887–1985) Hungarian mathematician
Mathematical Methods in Science (1977)
Context: Life is full of surprises: our approximate condition for the fall of a body through a resisting medium is precisely analogous to the exact condition for the flow of an electric current through a resisting wire [of an induction coil]....
m\frac {dv}{dt} = mg - Kv
This is the form most convenient for making an analogy with the "fall", i. e., flow, of an electric current.
... in order from left to right, mass m, rate of change of velocity \frac {dv}{dt}, gravitational force mg, and velocity v. What are the electrical counterparts?... To press the switch, to allow current to start flowing is the analogue of opening the fingers, to allow the body to start falling. The fall of the body is caused by the force mg due to gravity; the flow of the current is caused by the electromotive force or tension E due to the battery. The falling body has to overcome the frictional resistance of the air; the flowing current has to overcome the electrical resistance of the wire. Air resistance is proportional to the body's velocity v; electrical resistance is proportional to the current i. And consequently rate of change of velocity \frac {dv}{dt} corresponds to rate of change of current \frac {di}{dt}.... The electromagnetic induction L opposes the change of current... And doesn't the inertia or mass m..? Isn't L, so to speak, an electromagnetic inertia?
L\frac {di}{dt} = E - Ki
Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker
Source: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), p. 111-112
“Electrical fire and the fire of greed kindle economies.”
B. W. Powe (1955) Canadian writer
Interlude, p. 75
Towards a Canada of Light (2006)
Context: Electrical fire and the fire of greed kindle economies. In that flux, nations become digitized commodities on stock-exchange floors and on investors' rating screens. A country becomes a product to be rated for its obedience to paying of deficits and debts.
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) American judge
Source: "The Task of Maintaining Our Liberties: The Role of the Judiciary" (1953), P. 962
“Electric and magnetic forces. May they live for ever, and never be forgot”
Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist
Electromagnetic Theory (1912), Volume III; p. 1; "The Electrician" Pub. Co., London.
Context: Electric and magnetic forces. May they live for ever, and never be forgot, if only to remind us that the science of electromagnetics, in spite of the abstract nature of its theory, involving quantities whose nature is entirely unknown at the present, is really and truly founded on the observations of real Newtonian forces, electric and magnetic respectively.
“The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers (2001)
Context: There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) German physicist
Introduction, p. 28
Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space (1893)
Context: It is not particularly satisfactory to see equations set forth as direct results of observation and experiment, where we used to get long mathematical deductions as apparent proofs of them. Nevertheless, I believe that we cannot, without deceiving ourselves, extract much more from known facts than is asserted in the papers referred to. If we wish to lend more color to the theory, there is nothing to prevent us from supplementing all this and aiding our powers of imagination by concrete representations of the various conceptions as to the nature of electric polarisation, the electric current, etc.
Paul Glover (1947) Community organizer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American politician
http://www.paulglover.org/8812.html (“Ithaca Power”) comprehensive energy survey, received grant from Fund for Investigative Journalism, December 1988 <br class="br">Context: “While dissecting the universe scientists discovered that uranium, a metal invisibly boiling, can boil water to spark electricity. They believed the 'peaceful atom' would give cheap clean power. Recent years cause many to doubt this.”
Upton Sinclair book The Profits of Religion
Book One : The Church of the Conquerors, "The Priestly Lie"
The Profits of Religion (1918)
Context: When the first savage saw his hut destroyed by a bolt of lightning, he fell down upon his face in terror. He had no conception of natural forces, of laws of electricity; he saw this event as the act of an individual intelligence. To-day we read about fairies and demons, dryads and fauns and satyrs, Wotan and Thor and Vulcan, Freie and Flora and Ceres, and we think of all these as pretty fancies, play-products of the mind; losing sight of the fact that they were originally meant with entire seriousness—that not merely did ancient man believe in them, but was forced to believe in them, because the mind must have an explanation of things that happen, and an individual intelligence was the only explanation available. The story of the hero who slays the devouring dragon was not merely a symbol of day and night, of summer and winter; it was a literal explanation of the phenomena, it was the science of early times.
Margaret Fuller book Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
Context: The electrical, the magnetic element in Woman has not been fairly brought out at any period. Everything might be expected from it; she has far more of it than Man. This is commonly expressed by saying that her intuitions are more rapid and more correct. You will often see men of high intellect absolutely stupid in regard to the atmospheric changes, the fine invisible links which connect the forms of life around them, while common women, if pure and modest, so that a vulgar self do not overshadow the mental eye, will seize and delineate these with unerring discrimination.
Women who combine this organization with creative genius are very commonly unhappy at present. They see too much to act in conformity with those around them, and their quick impulses seem folly to those who do not discern the motives. This is an usual effect of the apparition of genius, whether in Man or Woman, but is more frequent with regard to the latter, because a harmony, an obvious order and self-restraining decorum, is most expected from her.
Then women of genius, even more than men, are likely to be enslaved by an impassioned sensibility. The world repels them more rudely, and they are of weaker bodily frame.
Those who seem overladen with electricity frighten those around them.
Jack Benny (1894–1974) comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor
The Jack Benny Program (Radio: 1932-1955), The Jack Benny Program (Television: 1950-1965)
Joseph Larmor (1857–1942) Irish physicist and mathematician
[Review of Electric Waves by H. M. Macdonald, 19 February 1903, 67, 1738, 361–364, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510002995080;view=1up;seq=421] (p. 363)
Benjamin Bratt (1963) American actor
On acting in various mediums in “Interview: Benjamin Bratt” https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Benjamin-Bratt-6673.html in Cinema Blend
Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States
Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 11 (p. 121)
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
On his years of research in developing the electric light bulb, as quoted in "Talks with Edison" by George Parsons Lathrop in Harper's magazine, Vol. 80 (February 1890), p. 425.
Variant:
Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off. … All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.
As quoted in Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century (1955) by Louis Untermeyer, p. 227.
1800s
Jeanine Áñez (1967) President of Bolivia
Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm's Lithium Deal https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/11/bolivian-coup-comes-less-week-after-morales-stopped-multinational-firms-lithium-deal, Common Dreams, Eoin Higgins, (11 November 2019) <br class="br">About
Evo Morales (1959) Bolivian politician
Vijay Prashad in The Bolivian Coup Comes Down to One Precious Mineral, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-bolivian-coup-comes-down-to-one-precious-mineral/ TruthDig, (13 November 2019) <br class="br">About
Vijay Prashad (1967) Indian historian and journalist
Vijay Prashad in The Bolivian Coup Comes Down to One Precious Mineral, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-bolivian-coup-comes-down-to-one-precious-mineral/ TruthDig, (13 November 2019)
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech to the Scottish Liberal Association, Edinburgh, 18 July 1909
Early career years (1898–1929)
“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you—about it being electrical.”
Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
She put her hand out, touched his arm; she felt guilty, seeing the effect it had on him, the change.
”No,” Rick said. “I’m glad to know. Or rather—” He became silent. “I’d prefer to know.”
Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Chapter 22 (p. 241)
Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India
2019, "2014 was a mandate for hope and aspiration, 2019 is about confidence and acceleration", 2019
Robert Cormier book The Rag and Bone Shop
He realized that he could get out of there. He could simply get up and leave. He didn't have to even speak to anybody. Hadn't they said this was voluntary? He was a volunteer. Well, he didn't feel like being a volunteer anymore. He wanted to go home.
Source: The Rag and Bone Shop (2000), p. 99-100
B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar
Stacie Stukin in: "10 Yogis gather around the guru"
I. Bernard Cohen (1914–2003) American historian of science
This was true not alone of the electrical writings but also in other fields of experimental enquiry. ...[The Opticks] would allow the reader to roam, with great Newton as his guide, through the major unresolved problems of science and even the relation of the whole world of nature to Him who had created it. ...in the Opticks Newton did not adopt the motto... —Hypotheses non fingo; I frame no hypotheses—but, so to speak, let himself go, allowing his imagination full reign and by far exceeding the bounds of experimental evidence.
I. Bernard Cohen, Preface to Opticks by Sir Isaac Newton (1952)
Anish Kapoor (1954) British contemporary artist of Indian birth
Anish Kapoor's Olympic Park sculpture sends public art into Orbit
Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858–1937) Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist and archaeologist
Observation of Bose Institute.
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose in Vijayaprasara
Thomas Young (scientist) (1773–1829) English polymath
Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)
Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone
“I like the way you talk, young man,” said Grass, “but I don’t know what you’re saying.”
Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 24 (p. 841)
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
Conclusion, Part Second, II
Napoleon the Little (1852)
Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer
The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Thirteen, The Whole- Earth Conspiracy
Desmond Leslie (1921–2001) British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician
The Amazing Mr. Lutterworth (1958)
Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman
The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century
Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute
Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 8. Because the Bible Tells Me So
Bernardo Kastrup Dutch computer scientist and philosopher
" Why the World Is Imagined: Summary https://www.bernardokastrup.com/2018/12/why-world-is-imagined-summary.html", Metaphysical Speculations, 1 Dec. 2018
Viktor Pinchuk (1969)
Press interview quotes <br class="br">Source: «A Little Journey into the Past» — South Capital. Crimea: newspaper. — 20.08.2021. — № 32 (1504), M. Kiseleva, ru, simadm.ru, 2021-09-02 http://simadm.ru/media/uploads/userfiles/2021/08/23/ЮС32.pdf,
Francesco Maggiotto (1738–1805) Italian painter (1738-1805)
From Lettera di Francesco Maggiotto pittore, ed accademico della pubblica Accademia di pittura, scultura, ed architettura di Venezia, e della Clementina di Bologna all'illustre professore nell'Università di Padova il signor abate Giuseppe Toaldo, sopra una nuova costruzione di macchina elettrica, 1781, p. 10 https://books.google.it/books?id=wRdqZqL8jcIC&hl=it&pg=PR10#v=onepage&q&f=false.
William Gibson Blue Ant trilogy
Source: Blue Ant trilogy, Pattern Recognition (2003), Chapter 1, "The Website of Dreadful Night"