Perpetual Motion Quotes

“The guillotine is the masterpiece of the plastic arts

Its click

Creates perpetual motion

("The Head")”
― Blaise Cendrars, Dix-neuf poèmes élastiques de Blaise Cendrars: Edition critique et commentée

“The machines of this place are failing, and the woman and I are here all alone. The perpetual motion engine, as brilliant and beautiful as it is, is running down—nothing lasts forever. But before this little world falls out of the sky there still might be time enough for redemption. There is still time for me to say the words that I should have had the courage to say at the beginning.

There is still time, perhaps, for one more miracle.

Hello, Miranda.”
― Dexter Palmer, The Dream of Perpetual Motion

“While they were floundering / I was pondering / 'No more wandering through the dark tunnels of grim determination / For no; it is time to grow in a thousand folded folds, for which we need an infinite fuel!”
― Nathan Coppedge, Nathan Coppedge's Perpetual Motion Machine Designs & Theory

“She is mad, and I am sane. To speak to her, even the first word, would be an acknowledgement and an acceptance of her madness, and from there I would have no choice but to follow her down the hole until both of us would be here alone in this ship among the clouds, endlessly circling the earth, our needs carefully ministered to by mechanical men, howling ourselves hoarse and counting off the ticks of the clock before the moon falls out of the sky.”
― Dexter Palmer, The Dream of Perpetual Motion

“We are within a whisper of arriving at the first law. Suppose we have a closed system and use it to do some work or allow a release of energy as heat. Its internal energy falls. We then leave the system isolated from its surroundings for as long as we like, and later return to it. We invariably find that its capacity to do work—its internal energy—has not been restored to its original value. In other words,

the internal energy of an isolated system is constant.

That is the first law of thermodynamics, or at least one statement of it, for the law comes in many equivalent forms. Another universal law of nature, this time of human nature, is that the prospect of wealth motivates deceit. Wealth—and untold benefits to humanity—would accrue to an untold extent if the first law were found to be false under certain conditions. It would be found to be false if work could be generated by an adiabatic, closed system without a diminution of its internal energy. In other words, if we could achieve perpetual motion, work produced without consumption of fuel. Despite enormous efforts, perpetual motion has never been achieved. There have been claims galore, of course, but all of them have involved a degree of deception. Patent offices are now closed to the consideration of all such machines, for the first law is regarded as unbreakable and reports of its transgression not worth the time or effort to pursue. There are certain instances in science, and certainly in technology, where a closed mind is probably justified.”
― Peter Atkins, The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction