Ludwig Boltzmann

1844–1906 · Austrian physicist and philosopher

Topics: physics, learning, science

• I pointed out in the second part of my paper... that my Minimum Theorem, as well as the so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics, are only theorems of probability. The Second Law can never be proved mathematically by means of the equations of dynamics alone.

  — Ludwig Boltzmann

• The system of particles always changes from an improbable to a probable state.

  — Ludwig Boltzmann

• Who sees the future? Let us have free scope for all directions of research; away with dogmatism, either atomistic or anti-atomistic!

  — Ludwig Boltzmann

• The assumption that the gas molecules are aggregates of material points, in the sense of Boscovich, does not agree with the facts. But what else are they? And what is the ether through which they move?

  — Ludwig Boltzmann