Energy

Energy is a fundamental concept in physics that is often defined as the capacity to do mechanical work — a definition disputed by many physicists. It also has a specific connotation of the forms of energy used for powering technological society.

Quotes

• Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this Nation. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war," except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy.
  • Jimmy Carter, address to the nation on the energy problem (April 18, 1977); Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1977, book 1, p. 656. Carter was quoting William James, who used the phrase in his essay, "The Moral Equivalent of War".

• It is found that the sum of energy of motion and energy of position is always constant. ...Energy is a quantity which can be greater or less but has no direction. ...[E]nergy is conserved, or is indestructible. This form of speech might be applied to other cases of alternate immortality, where one of two things comes into existence on disappearance of the other.
  • William Kingdon Clifford, "Energy and Force" (Mar 28, 1873) A previously unpublished lecture by Prof. Clifford before members of the Royal Institution, as described in Nature (May-Oct, 1880) Vol. 22, pp. 122-124. with an introduction by J. F. Moulton.

• E = mc²
  • Albert Einstein, The equivalence of matter and energy was originally expressed by the equation m = L/c², which easily translates into the far more well known E = mc² in Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? published in the Annalen der Physik (27 September 1905) : "If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/c²."

• You will soon be able to tax it.
  • Michael Faraday to William Gladstone on the future use of electricity

• It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount.
  • Richard Feynman, in The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964) Volume I, 4-1

• We must proceed with our own energy development. Exploitation of domestic petroleum and natural gas potentialities, along with nuclear, solar, geothermal, and non-fossil fuels is vital. We will never again permit any foreign nation to have Uncle Sam over a barrel of oil.
  • Gerald Ford, speech to the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, West Palm Beach, Florida (January 26, 1974); reported in Congressional Record (February 4, 1974), vol. 120, p. 2044.

• No national goal today in the domestic area is more important than this one. Yes, energy does mean much more than operate machines of industry or heat our homes or power our automobiles. It fuels our total economy. Energy means jobs. If we increase our energy capability or capacity, there will be more jobs for New Jersey and for every one of our States, including my State of Michigan, which is in a somewhat comparable situation to all of you in this great State. If our domestic source or supply continues to diminish as it is and our dependence on high-priced foreign oil increases, there will be fewer and fewer and fewer jobs and higher and higher unemployment in America. To put it very practically, we must stop exporting American dollars and American jobs. We must keep those jobs in America, in New Jersey, in Michigan, and we must create more and more jobs in this country.
  • Gerald Ford, Remarks at a Republican Party Fundraising Dinner in Newark, New Jersey, 4 October 1975

• The real key word that triggers my rage is the word "energy". When people start talking about positive or negative types, for instance, negative energy — what are you talking about? What do you mean? Let's think about it, what does energy mean? Well, we know what it means, you know, energy from petrol when it's burned and moves a car and makes it move, it's like this. "This room has positive energy." Now, where the fuck is it going, then? It's not moving. It's covering up such woolly thinking, such pathetic nonsense.
  • Stephen Fry on New Age use of the word "energy".
  • Room 101, Season 6 Episode 10

One must practice to attain this state, but it can only be acquired gradually. One may trace in one’s various lives how awareness of this energy develops, thus broadening one’s possibilities, whatever the circumstances may be. The sooner one begins to expand on his experience, the better.The impetuosity of youth becomes energy in manhood.

• • Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831), Volume 1, Chapter 2.

• If you take a bale of hay and tie it to the tail of a mule and then strike a match and set the bale of hay on fire, and if you then compare the energy expended shortly thereafter by the mule with the energy expended by yourself in the striking of the match, you will understand the concept of amplification.
  • William Shockley

Supermundane, Koot Hoomi (1938)

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• Friend, how can we discuss the Supermundane if energy is not yet realized as the foundation of Existence? Many will not understand at all what is meant by this, while others may think that they understand the significance of fundamental energy, but cannot think about it with clarity. It is necessary to train one’s thought upon the idea of energy until the feeling of it becomes as real as the feeling about any solid object. We speak about feeling, because knowledge alone cannot provide an understanding of energy. (Introduction)

• Even if man accepts the truth that fundamentally there is only one energy, this alone will not be enough for progress — one must also learn to picture to oneself its innumerable qualities. Man’s customary narrowness of thought limits his perception of the properties of this energy, and thus limits his understanding. Lofty thinking helps one avoid harmful limitation, but it is not easy to establish an appropriate level of beautiful and lofty thought amidst life’s misfortunes, and very few are prepared to understand that it is life’s difficulties themselves that can assist lofty thinking. Goalfitness will help one’s thinking when the properties of the fundamental energy appear to be contradictory. A blind man may be unable to perceive an event visible to others, but everyone can realize the Supermundane by learning to understand the many properties of the fundamental energy.

• Those who think of the Supermundane as the very Highest are correct. “As below, so above.” Let this ancient saying serve as a guide to cognition of the forces of the Supermundane.

• Over the centuries We have become accustomed to the idea that a concentration of energy can be directed to any domain. Energy, like lightning, unites accumulated forces in its discharge. So-called magical phenomena are based on the same principle. In reality, the term “magical” can only mislead. Any electrical apparatus can be called magical. When Urusvati performed levitation or the moving of objects, it was done not through magic but simply by not impeding the energy. The manifested energy was accepted and then projected. It was united with the cosmic energy, and thus could act.
  Our mirrors cannot be called magical. They simply increase the effectiveness of Our energy. Many appliances can be found that make energy more effective. Strong magnets could hardly be called magical, even though their action is remarkable.

• A whole new science can be developed that will study the dissemination of the energy of word and thought. The confirmation of the influence of word and thought on vegetation and on planetary conditions will depend upon this. We experiment with vibrations, and Our Brother Vaughan is also occupied with them. Many scientists should thank Him for his help. We rejoice when such seeds produce good sprouts. (68)

• People think that silence is simply not uttering any sound, but true power comes when the whole being is overwhelmed by silence and an energy is generated that permits communion with the Higher World. We know these hours of surging energy, and can affirm that this kind of silence is the highest tension. (89)

• True inner peace can be likened to Nirvana, in which all the energies are so intensified that they are unified in their ascent... People should strive for inner peace while participating in life... We must remind those who are lost to inaction that by their way of life they may create an illusion of peace, but their spirit will not be strengthened, nor will it succeed.

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