Michael Faraday (1791–1867) was an English scientist who made significant contributions to the fields of physics and chemistry. He is best known for his work in electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Faraday’s experiments with electricity and magnetism led to the discovery of electromagnetic induction, demonstrating how a changing magnetic field can induce an electric current in a circuit. This discovery laid the foundation for the development of electric generators and transformers, which are crucial components of modern power systems. Faraday also discovered electrolysis, the process by which electric current can decompose chemical compounds, leading to advances in the understanding of chemical reactions and the production of elements and compounds. His research on electrolysis contributed to the development of electrochemistry as a scientific discipline. Faraday’s work has had a profound impact on various fields, including technology, industry, and fundamental physics, and he is regarded as one of the most influential scientists in history.

Michael Faraday Quotes

1. “But still try, for who knows what is possible?”
— Michael Faraday

2. “Work, finish, publish.”
— Michael Faraday

3. “The book of nature which we have to read is written by the finger of God.”
— Michael Faraday

4. “Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature.”
— Michael Faraday

5. “The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.”
— Michael Faraday

6. “I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.”
— Michael Faraday

7. “Chemistry is necessarily an experimental science: its conclusions are drawn from data, and its principles supported by evidence from facts.”
— Michael Faraday

8. “The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.”
— Michael Faraday

9. “A man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong.”
— Michael Faraday

10. “There’s nothing quite as frightening as someone who knows they are right.”
— Michael Faraday

11. “Since peace is alone in the gift of God; and since it is He who gives it, why should we be afraid? His unspeakable gift in His beloved Son is the ground of no doubtful hope.”
— Michael Faraday

12. “Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds.”
— Michael Faraday

13. “I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it.”
— Michael Faraday

14. “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.’”
— Michael Faraday

15. “Nothing is ever too good to be true.”
— Michael Faraday

16. “A centre of excellence is, by definition, a place where second class people may perform first class work.”
— Michael Faraday

17. “I happen to have discovered a direct relation between magnetism and light, also electricity and light, and the field it opens is so large and I think rich.”
— Michael Faraday

18. “Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties.”
— Michael Faraday

19. “I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.”
— Michael Faraday

20. “Water is to me, I confess, a phenomenon which continually awakens new feelings of wonder as often as I view it.”
— Michael Faraday

21. “The Bible, and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, is the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all times and in all circumstances.”
— Michael Faraday

22. “But I must confess I am jealous of the term atom; for though it is very easy to talk of atoms, it is very difficult to form a clear idea of their nature, especially when compounded bodies are under consideration.”
— Michael Faraday

23. “Lectures which really teach will never be popular; lectures which are popular will never really teach.”
— Michael Faraday

24. “There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.”
— Michael Faraday

25. “I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can’t say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up.”
— Michael Faraday

26. “It is the great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it, whether in a degree great or small, instead of exhausting the subjects of research, opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge, overflowing with beauty and utility.”
— Michael Faraday

27. “It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I at last pull up.”
— Michael Faraday

28. “Why will people go astray when they have this blessed Book to guide them?”
— Michael Faraday

29. “I can at any moment convert my time into money, but I do not require more of the latter than is sufficient for necessary purposes.”
— Michael Faraday

30. “Magnetic lines of force convey a far better and purer idea than the phrase magnetic current or magnetic flood: it avoids the assumption of a current or of two currents and also of fluids or a fluid, yet conveys a full and useful pictorial idea to the mind.”
— Michael Faraday

31. “I will simply express my strong belief, that that point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy, but in every department of dally life.”
— Michael Faraday

32. “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.”
— Michael Faraday

33. “The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator, have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination!”
— Michael Faraday

34. “I could trust a fact and always cross-question an assertion.”
— Michael Faraday

35. “In place of practising wholesome self-abnegation, we ever make the wish the father to the thought: we receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the very reverse is required by every dictate of common sense.”
— Michael Faraday

36. “The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.”
— Michael Faraday

37. “No matter what you look at, if you look at it closely enough, you are involved in the entire universe.”
— Michael Faraday

38. “Who would not have been laughed at if he had said in 1800 that metals could be extracted from their ores by electricity or that portraits could be drawn by chemistry.”
— Michael Faraday

39. “Do not refer to your toy-books, and say you have seen that before. Answer me rather, if I ask you, have you understood it before?”
— Michael Faraday

40. “Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of “I” in one word is too much.”
— Michael Faraday

41. “I propose to distinguish these bodies by calling those anions which go to the anode of the decomposing body; and those passing to the cathode, cations; and when I have occasion to speak of these together, I shall call them ions.”
— Michael Faraday

42. “Non saprei meglio terminare le nostre conversazioni che esprimendo il desiderio che possiate nella vostra esistenza meritare d’essere comparati ad una candela; che possiate com’essa brillare qual fiamma per coloro che vi circondano, che possiate in tutte le vostre azioni emulare la bellezza del lucignolo, adempiendo con onore ed efficacia i vostri doveri verso i vostri simili.”
— Michael Faraday

43. “I cannot conceive curved lines of force without the conditions of a physical existence in that intermediate space.”
— Michael Faraday

44. “As when on some secluded branch in forest far and wide sits perched an owl, who, full of self-conceit and self-created wisdom, explains, comments, condemns, ordains and order things not understood, yet full of importance still holds forth to stocks and stones around – so sits and scribbles Mike.”
— Michael Faraday

45. “When I came to know Mrs. Marcet personally; how often I cast my thoughts backward, delighting to connect the past and the present; how often, when sending a paper to her as a thank you offering, I thought of my first instructress.”
— Michael Faraday