Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1790
AUTHOR:
Michael Faraday (1791–1867)
QUOTATION:
Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, had interrupted him in a description of his work on electricity to put the impatient inquiry: ‘But, after all, what use is it?’ Like a flash of lightning came the response: ‘Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it!’
ATTRIBUTION:
MICHAEL FARADAY.—James Kendall, Michael Faraday, Man of Simplicity, Introduction, p. 14 (1955).
