Quotes by William Kingdon Clifford

About William Kingdon Clifford:

William Kingdon Clifford is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour. The operations of geometric algebra have the effect of mirroring, rotating, translating, and mapping the geometric objects that are being modelled to new positions. Clifford algebras in general and geometric algebra in particular, have been of ever increasing importance to mathematical physics, geometry, and computing. Clifford was the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry. In his philosophical writings he coined the expression "mind-stuff".
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He who truly believes that which prompts him to an action has looked upon the action to lust after it, he has committed it already in his heart.

William Kingdon Clifford

Every rustic who delivers in the village alehouse his slow, infrequent sentences, may help to kill or keep alive the fatal superstitions which clog his race.

William Kingdon Clifford

No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe.

William Kingdon Clifford

To know all about anything is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances.

William Kingdon Clifford

We feel much happier and more secure when we think we know precisely what to do, no matter what happens, then when we have lost our way and do not know where to turn.

William Kingdon Clifford

The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs.

William Kingdon Clifford

To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

William Kingdon Clifford

The rule which should guide us in such cases is simple and obvious enough: that the aggregate testimony of our neighbours is subject to the same conditions as the testimony of any one of them.

William Kingdon Clifford

There is no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready made his discovery or poem or picture - that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within.

William Kingdon Clifford

Every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we weaken our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence. We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally w...

William Kingdon Clifford

Author Bio

  • NameWilliam Kingdon Clifford
  • DescriptionEnglish mathematician and philosopher
  • BornMay 4, 1845
  • DiedMarch 3, 1879
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionMathematician; Philosopher
  • AwardsFellow Of The Royal Society