Water is to me, I confess, a phenomenon which continually awakens new feelings of wonder as often as I view it.
Interpretation
Water inspires a sense of wonder and curiosity every time it is observed.
In this quote, Michael Faraday expresses his deep appreciation for water, highlighting how its beauty and complexity evoke a renewed sense of awe within him each time he encounters it. This perspective reflects the notion that natural phenomena, like water, can continually inspire us and provoke thought, emphasizing a connection between observation and emotional response.
In practice
During a nature documentary screening, this quote could emphasize the beauty of aquatic ecosystems.
I think chemistry is being frittered away by the hairsplitting of the organic chemists; we have new compounds discovered, which scarcely differ from the known ones and when discovered are valueless-very illustrations perhaps of their refinements in analysis, but very little aiding the progress of true science.
I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.
It is on record that when a young aspirant asked Faraday the secret of his success as a scientific investigator, he replied, 'The secret is comprised in three words- Work, Finish, Publish.'
When I consider the multitude of associated forces which are diffused through nature - when I think of that calm balancing of their energies which enables those most powerful in themselves, most destructive to the world's creatures and economy, to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation, I rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the beneficence, and grandeur, beyond our language to express, of the Great Disposer of us all.
It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.
Chemistry is necessarily an experimental science: its conclusions are drawn from data, and its principles supported by evidence from facts.
If lightning is the anger of the gods, then the gods are concerned mostly about trees.
Earlier, 100,000 elephants lived in Kenya and we didn't have any noteworthy problem with it. The problem that we have is not that there are now more elephants.
I'm hopeful that we'll be able to study the ocean before we destroy it.
There is no closed figure in nature. Every shape participates with another. No one thing is independent of another, and one thing rhymes with another, and light gives them shape.
Ask the beasts and they will teach you the beauty of this earth.
In a pine tree,/ A few yards from my window sill,/ A brilliant blue jay is springing up and down, up and/ down./ On a branch./ I laugh, as I see him abandon himself/ To entire delight, for he knows as well as I do/ That the branch will not break.
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