I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Scottish physicist
“Electrical Units of Measurement,” lecture (3 May 1883)
Quotations by:
Kelvin (Lord)
To live among friends is the primary essential of happiness.
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Scottish physicist
Lord Kelvin’s Replies to Addresses given on the Celebration of the Jubilee of his Professorship (15-17 Jun 1896)
(Source)
Quoted in G. Fitzgerald, Lord Kelvin, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow 1846-1899 (1899)