Kipling_Rudyard Quotes (1)
Langmuir is the most convincing lecturer that I have ever heard. I have heard him talk to an audience of chemists when I knew they did not understand more than one-third of what he was saying; but they thought they did. It's very easy to be swept off one's feet by Langmuir. You remember in [Kipling's novel] Kim that the water jar was broken and Lurgan Sahib was trying to hypnotise Kim into seeing it whole again. Kim saved himself by saying the multiplication table [so] I have heard Langmuir lecture when I knew he was wrong, but I had to repeat to myself: 'He is wrong; I know he is wrong; he is wrong', or I should have believed like the others.
'How to Ripen Time', Journal of Physical Chemistry 1931, 35, 1917.