Ernst Mach Quotes

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• Thing, body, matter, are nothing apart from the combinations of the elements, - the colours, sounds, and so forth - nothing apart from their so-called attributes.

  Ernst Mach

  Sound, Elements, Body

  Ernst Mach (1996). “The analysis of sensations”

  51 Copy quote

• A colour is a physical object as soon as we consider its dependence, for instance, upon its luminous source, upon other colours, upon temperatures, upon spaces, and so forth.

  Ernst Mach

  Space, Temperature, Source

  Ernst Mach (1959). “The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

  50 Copy quote

• I know of nothing more terrible than the poor creatures who have learned too much. Instead of the sound powerful judgement which would probably have grown up if they had learned nothing, their thoughts creep timidly and hypnotically after words, principles and formulae, constantly by the same paths. What they have acquired is a spider's web of thoughts too weak to furnish sure supports, but complicated enough to provide confusion.

  Ernst Mach

  Powerful, Confusion, Support

  Ernst Mach, Thomas J. McCormack (2014). “Popular Scientific Lectures”, p.288, Cambridge University Press

  15 Copy quote

• Strange as it may sound, the power of mathematics rests on its evasion of all unnecessary thought and on its wonderful saving of mental operations.

  Ernst Mach

  Science, Sound, Saving

  Ernst Mach, Thomas J. McCormack (2014). “Popular Scientific Lectures”, p.195, Cambridge University Press

  25 Copy quote

• Science is the most complete presentment of facts with the least expenditure of thought

  Ernst Mach

  Facts, Expenditures

  24 Copy quote

• Scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses.

  Ernst Mach

  Mean, Arriving, Use

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• The plain man is familiar with blindness and deafness, and knows from his everyday experience that the look of things is influenced by his senses; but it never occurs to him to regard the whole world as the creation of his senses.

  Ernst Mach

  Philosophy, Men, Medicine

  Ernst Mach (1996). “The analysis of sensations”

  8 Copy quote

• Man is pre-eminently endowed with the power of voluntarily and consciously determining his own point of view.

  Ernst Mach

  Men, Views, Point Of View

  Ernst Mach (1959). “The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

  18 Copy quote

• Thought experiment is in any case a necessary precondition for physical experiment. Every experimenter and inventor must have the planned arrangement in his head before translating it into fact.

  Ernst Mach

  Science, Facts, Cases

  Ernst Mach (2012). “Knowledge and Error: Sketches on the Psychology of Enquiry”, p.136, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The ego is as little absolutely permanent as are bodies.

  Ernst Mach

  Ego, Body, Littles

  Ernst Mach (1996). “The analysis of sensations”

  8 Copy quote

• Physics is experience, arranged in economical order.

  Ernst Mach

  Science, Order, Experience

  Ernst Mach, Thomas J. McCormack (2014). “Popular Scientific Lectures”, p.197, Cambridge University Press

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• I can accept the theory of relativity as little as I can accept the existence of atoms and other such dogmas.

  Ernst Mach

  Follow Your Dreams, Atoms, Littles

  17 Copy quote

• Science itself, therefore, may be regarded as a minimal problem, consisting of the completest possible presentment of facts with the least possible expenditure of thought.

  Ernst Mach

  Science, May, Facts

  Ernst Mach (1893). “The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Principles”

  7 Copy quote

• Personally, people know themselves very poorly.

  Ernst Mach

  People, Knows

  Ernst Mach, C. M. Williams (1897). “Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations”

  9 Copy quote

• Bodies do not produce sensations, but complexes of elements (complexes of sensations) make up bodies.

  Ernst Mach

  Philosophy, Medicine, Soma

  Ernst Mach (1996). “The analysis of sensations”

  11 Copy quote

• My table is now brightly, now dimly lighted. Its temperature varies. It may receive an ink stain. One of its legs may be broken. It may be repaired, polished, and replaced part by part. But, for me, it remains the table at which I daily write.

  Ernst Mach

  Writing, Broken, Ink

  Ernst Mach (1959). “The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

  15 Copy quote

• Science always has its origin in the adaptation of thought to some definite field of experience.

  Ernst Mach

  Fields, Adaptation, Definite

  Ernst Mach (1959). “The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

  12 Copy quote

• To us investigators, the concept 'soul' is irrelevant and a matter for laughter. But matter is an abstraction of exactly the same kind, just as good and just as bad as it is. We know as much about the soul as we do of matter.

  Ernst Mach

  Laughter, Science, Soul

  Ernst Mach (2014). “History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy”, p.48, Cambridge University Press

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• What Mach calls a thought experiment is of course not an experiment at all. At bottom it is a grammatical investigation.

  Ernst Mach

  Investigation, Bottom, Experiments

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• Many an article that I myself penned twenty years ago impresses me now as something quite foreign to myself.

  Ernst Mach

  Years, Twenties, Impress

  Ernst Mach (1914). “The Analysis of Sensations, and the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

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• The fact is, every thinker, every philosopher, the moment he is forced to abandon his one-sided intellectual occupation by practical necessity, immediately returns to the general point of view of mankind.

  Ernst Mach

  Views, Intellectual, Occupation

  Ernst Mach (1959). “The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

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• If our dreams were more regular, more connected, more stable, they would also have more practical importance for us.

  Ernst Mach

  Dream, Individualism, Importance

  Ernst Mach (1914). “The Analysis of Sensations, and the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical”

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• The history of the development of mechanics is quite indispensable to a full comprehension of the science in its present condition. It also affords a simple and instructive example or the processes by which natural science generally is developed.

  Ernst Mach

  Simple, Example, Development

  Ernst Mach (2013). “The Science of Mechanics”, p.1, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

• The acquisition of the most elementary truth does not devolve upon the individual alone: it is pre-effected in the development of the race.

  Ernst Mach

  Race, Doe, Acquisition

  Ernst Mach (2013). “The Science of Mechanics”, p.1, Cambridge University Press

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• Mathematics may be defined as the economy of counting. There is no problem in the whole of mathematics which cannot be solved by direct counting.

  Ernst Mach

  Math, May, Problem

  7 Copy quote

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