Interesting Quotes on Thermodynamics

Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero.
David R. Ellis


Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics.
Seth Lloyd


Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases.
Norman Ralph Augustine 


A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression that classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content which I am convinced will never be overthrown, within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts."
~Albert Einstein

“Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don't understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don't understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn't bother you anymore."
~Arnold Sommerfeld


“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
~Max Planck 




“It must be admitted, I think, that the laws of thermodynamics have a different feel from most of the other laws of physics. There is something more palpably verbal about them—they smell more of their human origins. The guiding motif is strange to most of physics; namely, a capitalizing of the universal failure of human beings to construct perpetual motion machines of either the first or the second kind. Why should we expect nature to be interested either positively or negatively in the purposes of human beings, particularly purposes of such unblushingly economic tinge?”