"He that would enjoy life and act with freedom must have the work of the day continually before his eyes. Not yesterday's work, lest he fall into despair; nor to-morrow's, lest he become a visionary—not that which ends with the day, which is a worldly work; nor yet that only which remains to eternity, for by it he cannot shape his actions. Happy is the man who can recognise in the work of to-day a connected portion of the work of life and an embodiment of the work of Eternity. The foundations of his confidence are unchangeable, for he has been made a partaker of Infinity. He strenuously works out his daily enterprises because the present is given him for a possession. Thus ought Man to be an impersonation of the divine process of nature, and to show forth the union of the infinite with the finite, not slighting his temporal existence, remembering that in it only is individual action possible; nor yet shutting out from his view that which is eternal, knowing that Time is a mystery which man cannot endure to contemplate until eternal Truth enlighten it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Paper communicated to (1854) Æt. 23, as quoted in Lewis Campbell, William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell: With Selections from His Correspondence and Occasional Writings (1884) pp. 144-145, and in , James Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics (1896) pp. 39-40.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Clerk Maxwell
1831 – 1879
schottischer Physiker
52 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Clerk Maxwell →
Related Quotes
"And last of all we have the secondary forms of crystals bursting in upon us, and sparkling in the rigidity of mathema…"
"Velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electromagnetic experiments of 'MM…"
"The general equations are next applied to the case of a magnetic disturbance propagated through a non-conductive fiel…"
"I have also cleared the electromagnetic theory of light from all unwarrantable assumption, so that we may safely dete…"
"I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I ho…"
"This characteristic of modern experiments — that they consist principally of measurements — is so prominent, that the…"
"We may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by w…"
"Changing electric fields produce magnetic fields, and changing magnetic fields produce electric fields. Thus the fiel…"
"The whole science of heat is founded Thermometry and , and when these operations are understood we may proceed to the…"
"The vast interplanetary and interstellar regions will no longer be regarded as waste places in the universe, which th…"