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Dear all, I strongly suspect the alleged quote is not from Faraday, but a slightly changed phrasing of a famous quote by the experimental physicist, physiologist and philosopher Ernst Mach, who wrote in 1872 (in: Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit, p. 46): "Die Theorien aber sind wie dürre Blätter, welche abfallen, wenn sie den Organismus der Wissenschaft eine Zeit lang in Athem gehalten haben." In best autumn weather and with regards, Klaus Hentschel, _www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/hentschel_ (http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/hentschel) In einer eMail vom 15.09.2009 23:54:59 Westeuropäische Sommerzeit schreibt [log in to unmask]: FW from HOPOS. Pls respond to original sender at MIT. g ------ Forwarded Message From: Michelle Baildon <[log in to unmask]> Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:28:28 -0400 To: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: help with possible Faraday quotation? Hello all, A library patron has asked for help verifying this quotation, supposedly by Michael Faraday: "I hold my theories by my fingertips so that the least breeze of fact might blow them away." Much searching online and in print hasn't turned up a reference. Do you have any leads or thoughts on sources to consult? Thanks, Michelle