Atom

“The Atoms of DemocritusWhere Israel's tents do shine so bright.”

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”

“We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.”

“If the motion to be discussed here can actually be observed, together with the laws it is expected to obey, then classical thermodynamics can no longer be viewed as applying to regions that can be distinguished even with a microscope, and an exact determination of actual atomic sizes becomes possible. On the other hand, if the prediction of this motion were to be proved wrong, this fact would provide a far-reaching argument against the molecular-kinetic conception of heat.”

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”

“… Several of Thomson’s colleagues thought he was joking when he argued that the electron was smaller than the atom and was a constituent of every atom; to many scientists, the idea that there could exist matter smaller than the atom was inconceivable. Yet he was proved right.”

“Another way to remember their size is this: if an apple is magnified to the size of the earth, then the atoms in the apple are approximately the size of the original apple.”

“But what if we could see them?""That's a poor excuse of an answer. For the same remark a pplies to things in general. In the case of a cat, too, all you can see is the reflection of light rays, i.e., the effects of the cat, and not the cat itself. And when you stroke its fur, the situation is much the same!”

“Hynes here too: account of the funeral probably. Thumping. Thump. This morning the remains of the late Mr Patrick Dignam. Machines. Smash a man to atoms if they got him caught. Rule the world today. His machineries are pegging away too. Like these, got out of hand: fermenting. Working away, tearing away. And that old grey rat tearing to get in.”

“And in the corner by the window gable was a shelf with some books, and some from a circulating library. She looked. There were books about Bolshevist Russia, books of travel, a volume about the atom and the electron, another about the composition of the earth’s core, and the causes of earthquakes: then a few novels: then three books on India. So! He was a reader after all.”

“A man concerned about the state of his soul will not usually be much helped by thinking about the spheres or the structure of the atom.”

“I don't believe that atoms exist!”

“As for the atoms, they have been in far worse rows before they became naturalised in my brain, but they forget the days before, etc. At any rate the atoms are a very tough lot, and can stand a great deal of knocking about, and it is strange to find a number of them combining to form a man of feeling.”

“In your letter you apply the word imponderable to a molecule. Don't do that again. It may also be worth knowing that the aether cannot be molecular. If it were, it would be a gas, and a pint of it would have the same properties as regards heat, etc., as a pint of air, except that it would not be so heavy.Under what form (right or light) can an atom be imagined? Bezonian! speak or die! Now I must go to post with two dogs in the rain.—Your afft. friend”

“As far as materialistic atomism goes: this is one of the most well-refuted things in existence. In Europe these days, nobody in the scholarly community is likely to be so unscholarly as to attach any real significance to it, except as a handy household tool (that is, as an abbreviated figure of speech).”

“Atoms are round balls of wood invented by Dr. Dalton.”

“… A particle, on the other hand, has discrete properties which it carries with it. And so the remarkable thing was the discovery, in investigations of various atomic phenomena, of an apparent paradox.”

“Nothing exists, save atoms and their combinations. There is no atom, which wouldn't periodically take part in life.”

“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”