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Quote#Wisdom

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about,…

Quote byWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin · 1825–1907

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (3 May 1883), published in Lectures Vol. I, p. 73.

English (original)

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.

— William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

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