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, Bemerkungen über einige Probleme der mechanischen Warmetheorie (1877)

Cited to his 1877 paper on problems of the mechanical theory of heat.

Topics: physics